IPL 2021: I don’t think it is going to be MS Dhoni’s final year – CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan

Chennai Super Kings CEO Kasi Viswanathan believes it is not going to be MS Dhoni’s final year in the Indian Premier League.

Dhoni is the second most successful captains in the IPL history as he has led CSK to title on three occasions. The former Indian captain, who announced his international retirement in August last year, couldn’t get going in the previous season of the IPL.

Dhoni, 39, has all the experience under his belt but he is at the fag end of his career. The talisman couldn’t bat at the top of his game in the previous season as he scored 200 runs in 14 matches he played, thus raising doubts about his future in the IPL. This was Dhoni’s lowest tally in a single season of the IPL.

In fact, Dhoni failed to get going and a lot of cricket experts raised questions on his fitness, which has always been high throughout his career. But Dhoni did look off-color in the previous season as he had lacked the game time under his belt.

Meanwhile, when CSK played their last league stage match of IPL 2020 season against Punjab Kings, Dhoni quashed all the rumours of it being his last match in the IPL.

“See, I don’t think it is going to be his final year. This is my personal view and I don’t think we are looking at anybody now,” he was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

“Normally, what we do is, we have a process set before we start a tournament. So we did the process for last year’s tournament also. It so happened that we missed some of our best players, and a couple of them got infected by Covid. Those (the situation) was beyond our reach.”

Viswanathan added that CSK is continuing to follow the mantra of doing the process right and thus the results will automatically come.

“Now the team is in good shape. The process has been good. They have been having practice sessions for the last 15-20 days. And we believe in our process. The captain (MS Dhoni) is very clear – you should do the process properly, and if the process is fine, the results will come,” he added.

MS Dhoni has all the experience under his belt and he will aim to deliver the goods for the franchise. Dhoni is always the fulcrum of CSK and he is known to get the best out of his players.

Chennai couldn’t qualify for the playoff stages in the previous edition as they finished at seventh place and thus they will aim to turn the tables. CSK will begin their IPL 2021 campaign against Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on 10th April.