Veteran spinner R Ashwin has shared his thoughts about which player from the current Chennai Super Kings (CSK) side can be groomed to take over the captaincy, once MS Dhoni decides to call time on his IPL career.
MS Dhoni is slated to play in the IPL 2024 and will also captain the defending champions. However, given that he is already 42 years old, the next edition of IPL might very well be his last. Hence it's necessary to groom someone else to take his place.
CSK had previously experimented with Ravindra Jadeja as captain in IPL 2022, but the results proved to be disastrous, so much so that Dhoni had to take over captaincy from Jadeja mid-tournament.
But R Ashwin thinks that young batter Ruturaj Gaikwad can very well be CSK’s next captain. Ruturaj recently captained the Indian side to a gold medal in the Asian Games and has captained Maharashtra in domestic cricket as well.
Ashwin also talked about England skipper Ben Stokes’ IPL prospects. Stokes was released by the Chennai team management ahead of the IPL 2024 mini-auction.
“The holes that CSK will try to fill are ones of captaincy, which I believe Ruturaj Gaikwad is going to take over, Ambati Rayudu said in his latest interview. Ben Stokes, too, was taken by CSK on the same philosophy of playing an able right hand. Needless to say, he is a quality leader, and CSK is a team that values experience. I think they’ll go back to Shardul and get their combination back,” Ravichandran Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Ahead of the IPL 2024 mini-auction, Chennai Super Kings decided to release some big names like Ben Stokes, Dwaine Pretorius, Ambati Rayudu, and Kyle Jamieson. The five-time IPL champions will go into the IPL 2024 auction, which will happen on December 19, with a purse of INR 31.4 crores.
Keeping this in mind, Ashwin also spoke about CSK possibly looking for a backup keeper for MS Dhoni, someone who will take over the job once Dhoni bids goodbye.
“Another thing that they would be thinking about is who is the replacement keeper for MS Dhoni and even about retention next year. Actually, there were so many rumors in the air that CSK was going to trade this player to see him as a future successor to MS Dhoni. I don’t want to call out names, as I am also playing in a franchise. But a team like CSK is filled with thinkers,” Ravichandran Ashwin added.
Knowing CSK, they will decide everything once the management consults with MS Dhoni on these matters and trust them to pick the correct choice in the auction.
