Chennai Tremendous Kings (CSK) icon Mahendra Singh Dhoni has confirmed that he will not be seen as captain of the franchise within the 2026 version of the Indian Premier League (IPL), however reasonably play as a specialist keeper-batter. As a substitute, Ruturaj Gaikwad will return because the captain for the upcoming season, he additional clarified. Dhoni had stepped in as skipper throughout IPL 2025 after Gaikwad suffered an elbow fracture early within the match.
The 2025 season proved to be a tough one for CSK, with the crew struggling in Gaikwad’s absence. Talking concerning the earlier marketing campaign, Dhoni acknowledged the challenges the crew confronted and acknowledged that CSK would give attention to strengthening their batting order forward of the subsequent season, which they appear to have completed already.
“We’re barely fearful about our batting order. However I believe our batting order is sort of sorted out now. Rutu (Gaikwad) might be coming again [as captain]. He received injured. However he might be coming again. So, we’re fairly sorted now. I will not say we (CSK) slacked off (in IPL 2025). However there have been sure holes that we wanted to plug in. A small public sale is coming in December. Some loopholes are there, and we’ll attempt to plug these in,” stated Dhoni throughout a non-public operate in Chennai as quoted by India As we speak.
Hopeful to be at our greatest subsequent season: Dhoni
Gaikwad’s final aggressive look got here in CSK’s match in opposition to Punjab Kings at Mullanpur. He had earlier signed a cope with English county facet Yorkshire however later withdrew, citing private causes. Nonetheless, the promising opener is about for a return to motion, having been named within the West Zone squad for the upcoming Duleep Trophy, scheduled to start later this month.
In the meantime, the 44-year-old veteran cricketer acknowledged that the five-time champions have carried out properly beneath expectations over the previous couple of seasons of the cash-rich match. He emphasised the necessity for the crew to determine and tackle their gray areas forward of the 2026 marketing campaign, in a bid to say their record-breaking sixth championship.
“Sure, the final couple of years haven’t been good for us. We’ve not been on top of things. However what’s necessary is so that you can see the learnings. Sure, you had a nasty season. However what went fallacious? And that was the query for us final yr additionally. We had been like, ‘okay, there are some shortcomings’. However first we wanted to precisely work out what had been the shortcomings after which take a look at options,” Dhoni famous.
The Ranchi-born profusely thanked the loyal CSK followers for his or her unwavering assist throughout difficult instances and promised that the crew would ship a much-improved efficiency within the upcoming season.
“I really feel as a rule we’ve got been ready to determine what precisely went fallacious. In sports activities, you already know you may have an excellent time and on the similar time there might be durations while you will not be performing properly. In CSK, as a rule, we’re on the upper facet. So, we do discuss concerning the processes. However on the similar time we do need the outcome to come back to our facet. Final yr it (outcome) wasn’t there. However trying forward, we’ll attempt to kind out a lot of the issues and we’ll hopefully be at our greatest,” he added.
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