In the 61st match of the Indian Premier League 2023, Kolkata Knight Riders beat Chennai Super Kings by 6 wickets to stay alive in the race of playoffs. After playing their last league game at the Chepauk this season, CSK skipper MS Dhoni led his team and took a round of the ground to appreciate the crowd. Amidst rumours around his retirement from IPL, a former India cricketer considered it as Dhoni’s message to his fans.
Former India cricketer Mohammed Kaif said that Dhoni has given enough hints that it will be his last IPL season as a player. He said that he had never seen a great like Sunil Gavaskar run and take an autograph from a player. “I think MSD has given enough hints that this is his last IPL. He’s keeping the world guessing and that’s been his nature. But I have this intuition that Dhoni will not be playing in the IPL next year.”
Further talking about Sunil Gavaskar, who rushed to Dhoni while he was leading CSK for a lap of honour at Chepauk, Kaif said that it tells the greatness of Dhoni. He said, “We have never seen Sunny Sir taking an autograph of any other cricketer. A great like Sunil Gavaskar taking the autograph on his shirt from Dhoni just tells the greatness of MS Dhoni.”
We believe MS is going to play one more season: says CSK CEO
Speaking about Dhoni’s retirement, CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan said that the franchise believes that Dhoni will play one more season. “We believe MS Dhoni is going to play next season as well,” Kasi Viswanathan said in a video posted by CSK. It’s worth noting that Dhoni has previously amazed everyone with his retirement.
In 2014, he pulled out as Test captain in the middle of a Test series between India and Australia before declaring his retirement from international cricket on August 15, 2020. Meanwhile, on May 20, CSK will play their final group-stage game against the Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. The team would like to win the game and be in the race for playoffs.
