After capping off a forgetful season in the cash-rich league, MS Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will aim to bounce back in the 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Champions in four editions of the world's richest cricket tournament, Dhoni's Yellow Brigade failed to secure their berth for the playoff stage of the IPL last season.
Handpicked as the ideal successor of Dhoni, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja opted to step down from the captaincy post after CSK's dreadful run in the league phase of the previous season. Jadeja-led CSK lost six out of their eight matches in the league phase last season. Dhoni was reinstated as the leader of the Yellow Brigade after Jadeja decided to relinquish captaincy to focus and concentrate more on his individual performance.
Sharing his views on the Star Sports show Game Plan, former CSK star Harbhajan Singh opined that CSK have their task cut out for the forthcoming season of the cash-rich league. Even though Dhoni is in the twilight phase of his IPL career, former Indian spinner Harbhajan feels that the Ranchi stalwart is still the best captain for the Chennai-based franchise.
“They have a lot of work to do. Dhoni's best cricket is behind him as well. Yes, he is the best captain today also. If you make him stand as a captain, you will not get that value from any other captain. You will have to find an option for him as well, who can come along with Dhoni who can take the team forward. There were some issues with Ravindra Jadeja, we don't know what happened there,” Harbhajan said.
{{/usCountry}}“They have a lot of work to do. Dhoni's best cricket is behind him as well. Yes, he is the best captain today also. If you make him stand as a captain, you will not get that value from any other captain. You will have to find an option for him as well, who can come along with Dhoni who can take the team forward. There were some issues with Ravindra Jadeja, we don't know what happened there,” Harbhajan said.
{{/usCountry}}Dhoni-led CSK recorded only 4 wins and the former champions suffered 10 defeats in 14 league matches last season. CSK will have to address their middle-order issues in the upcoming mini-auction. "Ravindra Jadeja will definitely come back but we saw that they don't have batting at the top and the finisher's spot, the role which Bravo and Dhoni used to perform, is also looking empty," Harbhajan added.