It’s finally the end of Dhoni’s captaincy era, the legendary player “handed” over the CSK’s (Chennai Super Kings) captaincy to the youngster, Ruturaj Gaikwad on thursday. A decision that is bound to happen considering speculation swirling around on MS playing future. It was announced a day before the opening game of IPL 2024.
“MS Dhoni has handed over Chennai Super Kings’ captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad ahead of the start of TATA IPL 2024. Ruturaj has been an integral part of Chennai Super Kings since 2019 and has played 52 matches in IPL during this period. The team looks forward to the upcoming season.” said CSK.
This announcement brings an end to MS Dhoni’s role as the captain of CSK, which began in the tournament’s first season back in 2008. However, Ravindra Jadeja took on the leadership duties in his absence but it did not last long leaving CSK management to convince MS to reconsider his decision again. Dhoni resumed captaincy in 2023 eventually leading CSK winning the trophy for the 5th time. That triumph was expected to be Dhoni’s IPL farewell but he returned with his best again.
Ruturaj made his IPL debut back in 2020 and since then, he has only played for one franchise i.e. CSK. His best IPL season was 2021, when he made 635 runs in 16 outings with a spectacular average of 45.35.
The 27 Year-old, Gaikwad hails from Maharashtra and is not a new name in captaincy. He led the Indian team to the gold medal in the Asian Games last year. Though he’ll have his first match as CSK’s captain against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in IPL 2024 opener at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium.
