Hyderabad: In the history of the Indian Premier League, only a handful of players have become synonymous, if not bigger, with their franchise. Former Indian captain MS Dhoni is the frontrunner in the list. The star tom and the next Chennai Super Kings among the fans are directly proportional to Dhoni and his stature.
Indian cricket, Dhoni, will attract all the attention this season as it could be his last outing. After everyone retired from international cricket days before the last IPL season, everyone thought he would also quit the cash-rich league after the last issue. He said he would “definitely not quit”. But as age catches up with him, the legend is looking for one last hurray with the team to end his envious career at a high point. There has been a lot of doubt about his declining abilities over the past season. He scored just 200 runs in the entire league at an below average of 25.
He does not succeed in hitting half a century. In addition, he faced heat for the first time for his team’s poor show. The team, which has always won the playoffs, won three titles, five runners-up and final matches, avoided the wooden spoon in the last edition by a mustache to achieve seventh place. He also had to bear the hardship when he defended his choice to go with the old horses and said that the young people did not ‘spark’. Chennai, with three titles, is the second most successful team after Mumbai to sit at the top with five trophies, including rugby titles.
However, no team is as consistent as CSK. After all the controversy surrounding Suresh Raina’s departure from the UAE days before the start of the league, the Southpaw were retained in the group. But he does not have a serious match practice in the run-up to the tournament like his ‘older brother’ Dhoni.
With the youngsters Ruturaj Gaikwad and N Jagadeesan showing promise in the domestic season and the brilliance shown by the all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and the Englishman Sam Curran in the previous tournament, the team has enough firepower with Faf du Plessis on top.
Veteran Robin Uthappa, who has been overtaken by Royals, could form a starting pair with Faf and the presence of Ambati Rayudu, the batting looks solid. It will be interesting to see if Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara gets a match.
On the whole, Dhoni sees a fairytale farewell to his IPL career if he prefers to say goodbye.
Source: Telangana Today