Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batting coach Michael Hussey shared that he was unsure of MS Dhoni’s future in the IPL but he hoped the legendary cricketer would continue playing for another two years as well. The veteran underwent knee surgery after IPL 2023 and he has battled a muscle tear in the ongoing season as well.
When asked about this on ESPN’s Around the Wicket show, Hussey said: “Your guess is as good as mine at this stage. He keeps his cards very, very close to his chest. We are hoping he does keep going. From a personal point of view, I hope he keeps going for another couple of years. But we will just have to wait and see. He is the only one who will make that call. And he likes to sort of build the drama a little bit as well. So I wouldn’t expect a decision anytime soon.”
“He is still batting so well. He does prepare well – he gets into the camp very early and hits a lot of balls. He has been in good touch all season really. I guess we just got to try to manage him from the body side of things. He had a knee surgery after the last season. So he has been managing that from the initial stage of the tournament,” said Hussey. “I know fans probably want to see him batting a little bit higher in the order, but that [the knee surgery] is why we have had to manage him a little bit and he only comes in at the back end. But there has been no one better in being able to come in and hit the ball so cleanly from ball one than MS. He has been phenomenal.”
However, MS Dhoni has been in sublime form with the bat this season, averaging 68 at a strike rate of 226.66 in 13 outings. Michael Hussey also added MS Dhoni handed over the captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad to make sure he was still playing when the new captain took over
to guide him along the way as well. Meanwhile, Gaikwad replaced Dhoni as CSK skipper this season as well.
“MS sort of announced that he was not going to be attending the pre-tournament captains meeting. And we’re like, ‘Oh, no. What’s going on? He said Ruturaj was going to be captain from then on. So it was a little bit of a shock to start with but it has been managed really well. “MS wanted to still be here while the new captain took over, to try to help him along the way and sort of mentor him a little bit. So that’s worked really well as well,” concluded Michael Hussey.
