MS Dhoni said that there is a "lot of uncertainty" about whether he will playing for the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League next season.
Follow Us
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper MS Dhoni did not confirm his availability for the Chennai-based franchise in the role of a player, for the upcoming edition when asked about the same during the toss of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 encounter against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Thursday. Dhoni’s statement has resulted in a lot of questions over a potential role as the franchise mentor, with the legendary cricketer set to essay the same role in the upcoming edition of the T20 World Cup.
“Well you can see me in yellow, but whether I’ll be playing for CSK there are a lot of uncertainties around it for a simple reason that we have two new teams coming up. We don’t know the retention policy. We don’t know how many foreigners, Indian players we can retain, the money cap that every player will be cutting from the kitty. So there are a lot of uncertainties. Unless the rules are in place you can’t really decide that. So we will wait for it to happen and hopefully it will be good for everyone,” he stated as quoted by Cricbuzz.
Dhoni has gone in with an unchanged lineup for the encounter against PBKS, which means the absence of Suresh Raina yet again.
“It is tough to maintain fitness. Whenever we came back for the second leg, we knew we will have back to back games. We had three games in 5 days. No, we are playing with the same XI. The heat is a factor. The wicket looks good,” stated the CSK skipper.
One of the key players in the CSK setup is all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, with the Windies cricketer enjoying his birthday today.
“The feeling is good, this is an important game for us. Everytime we play, every game against every opponent, it’s important. In a tournament like IPL, you are bound to lose a few games on the run. Having said that, we are very proud with the way we go about in this campaign, especially in the second leg. This game is another important game, we want to challenge ourselves as a team to make sure we bounce back from the last game and go into the knockouts with a win under our belt,” he stated.
“I use my experience, depending on the stage of the game I come out to bowl or whenever I am going to bat I allow the scoreboard to dictate how I play and what I need to do at that point in time. This ground, one side is bigger than the other, depending on the end I bowl on, I will know what line and length I want to bowl. For me it’s about how the game unfolds on that day, then I come up with my own personal game-plan,” added Bravo.
Lineups:
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Robin Uthappa, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Josh Hazlewood
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): KL Rahul(w/c), Mayank Agarwal, Aiden Markram, Sarfaraz Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Moises Henriques, Chris Jordan, Harpreet Brar, Mohammed Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh.
Rishabh Pant's explosive last-over blitz ignites IPL 2024 amid T20 World Cup comeback talks
