CSK Captaincy: Who will be MS Dhoni successor at CSK? – Another year, another big question for Chennai Super Kings fans, who will succeed MS Dhoni? However, unlike last few years, CSK have a REAL option now. With highly successful England Test captain Ben Stokes joining the squad besides Ajinkya Rahane, CSK now have plenty of options. However, as far as CSK team management is concerned, one cannot rule out Ruturaj Gaikwad either as he is a long-term option. MS Dhoni will name his successor before or after the end of IPL 2023. Check CSK Full Squad & Follow IPL 2023 LIVE Updates on InsideSport.IN.
“Of course, we are very happy getting Ben Stokes. He is not just a match-winner but also a great leader. It’s MS’s call on who he will name his successor. With foreign players leading in IPL, there is always the problem of combination. Plus, all-rounders are always tricky customers to handle. If Ben doesn’t get an NOC next year, it will be a problem. So, one can never rule out a young Ruturaj,” a CSK official told InsideSport.
CSK Captaincy: Ben Stokes frontrunner to take over from MS Dhoni, but CSK management says ‘Don’t rule out Ruturaj Gaikwad’, Follow IPL 2023 LIVE Updates
Why Ruturaj Gaikwad is an option for CSK?
- Despite his young age, Ruturaj Gaikwad is CSK’s long-term option.
- He has already led Maharashtra in the domestic circuit.
- He is also learning from the great MS Dhoni himself besides the likes of Stephen Fleming, Dwayne Bravo and Faf du Plessis.
- With time by his side, CSK are keeping a tab on Ruturaj as the future leader.
- However, Ben Stokes remains the frontrunner with vast experience and natural leadership traits.
- CSK picked up Stokes for a whopping Rs 16.25 Crore after fending off challenges from LSG, SRH, RR & RCB.
- But with Ben Stokes, CSK have two problems. One is he is a foreign player and the 2nd is that he is an all-rounder.
- Ben Stokes is likely to get a conditional NOC on not bowling in every match.
- Hence, CSK will have to play him as an overseas batter in most games.
- In case of any injury because of his past history and all-rounder status, CSK will be forced to fall back on another player.
- Ajinkya Rahane is also another option but he doesn’t have a guaranteed spot in CSK’s Playing XI.
- With Ruturaj, CSK won’t have all those issues.
CSK Captaincy: Ben Stokes frontrunner to take over from MS Dhoni, but CSK management says ‘Don’t rule out Ruturaj Gaikwad’, Follow IPL 2023 LIVE Updates
However, it is a call solely on MS Dhoni as per CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan. Kasi also told InsideSport that Dhoni was continuously on call with the team at AUCTION and kept guiding the team. When asked, will Stokes be the next captain of CSK? CSK CEO said, ‘it will be Dhoni’s call’.
“We are SUPER excited to have Ben Stokes in our line-up. MS is also SUPER-HAPPY, he was on call with us and was guiding the team throughout at the AUCTION. MS was happy that we got an allrounder we wanted. Captaincy option is there but it’s a call MS will take with time,” declared CSK CEO to InsideSport on Saturday.
#SuperAuction round up with our Super CEO!
Full 📹 : https://t.co/1wSSJWtZow#WhistlePodu #Yellove 🦁💛 pic.twitter.com/OmsBn5XZDV— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) December 24, 2022
CSK Masterstroke? Before the IPL Auction, CSK kept sending the message that they will go hard on Sam Curran. InsideSport also had spoken to the CSK team before the IPL AUCTION. The message was loud and clear that Curran is the man they will targetting at IPL Auction.
But it seems they bluffed their way before buying Stokes. They went hard for Curran but it seems Stokes was the one they were actually eyeing and got him at the end at a decent price.
“We had planned in a manner that we have to pick either of Curran or Stokes at the auction. We are lucky that plan got materialized. We look forward to welcoming Stokes now in Chennai,” revealed Kasi earlier.
What about Ravindra Jadeja? – However, CSK are not looking to go back to Ravindra Jadeja anytime soon. Jadeja was forced to step down after taking over CSK captaincy last season. MS Dhoni believes Jadeja is not ready to fulfill triple role at the moment. Apart from bowling and batting, the captaincy burden was taking a toll on his performances.
“Jadeja is not in the plans as of now. He is a very important player for us. He needs to concentrate on his batting and bowling. He is a crucial fielder too as he stops 10-20 runs every match and takes some crucial catches. So, he is already a 3D player. We don’t want to put too much pressure on him,” the CSK official told InsideSport.
CSK Captaincy: Ben Stokes frontrunner to take over from MS Dhoni, but CSK management says ‘Don’t rule out Ruturaj Gaikwad’, Follow IPL 2023 LIVE Updates
Chennai Super Kings FULL Squad – CSK Full Squad
Bhagath Varma (INR 20 lakh), Ajay Mandal (INR 20 lakh), Kyle Jamieson (INR 1 crore), Nishant Sindhu (INR 60 lakh), Shaik Rasheed (INR 20 lakh), Ben Stokes (INR 16.25 crore), Ajinkya Rahane (INR 50 lakh), MS Dhoni (c), Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Subhranshu Senapati, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Chowdhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Deepak Chahar, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana.
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