Chennai Super Kings has won their fourth Indian Premier League title on Friday under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. Ahead of the next year’s mega auction, a CSK official said the first retention card at the auction will be used to retain Dhoni only.
While speaking to ANI, he said: “There will be retention and that is a fact. The number of retentions isn’t something we are aware of yet. But honestly, that is secondary in MS’ case because the first card will be used for him. The ship needs its captain and rest assured he will be back next year.”
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However, MS Dhoni has been a part of the CSK franchise since the inception of the league. In 11 seasons, he led the team in the final 9 times and won the title four times as well. Meanwhile, he was asked about the road ahead after the IPL title win. To which Dhoni said: “Again I’ve said it before, it depends on BCCI. With two new teams coming in, we have to decide what is good for CSK. It’s not about me being there in top-three or four. It’s about making a strong core to ensure the franchise doesn’t suffer. The core group, we have to have a hard look to see who can contribute for the next 10 years.”
The captain also applauded his opponent Kolkata Knight Riders who had finished seventh in the points table in the first half of the IPL 2021 but eventually bounced back and reached the final as well.
“Before I start talking about CSK, need to talk about KKR. Difficult to come back and do what they have, if any team deserved to win the IPL, it’s KKR. Huge credit to the coaches, team, and support staff. The break really helped them. Coming to CSK, we shuffled players. We had match winners coming game after game and doing really well,” said Dhoni.
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“Every final is special, if you look at stats, we may say we’re the most consistent team to lose the final too. I feel it’s important to come back strong, especially in the knockouts. Frankly no chats, we don’t talk a lot [meetings]. It’s more one-on-one, our practice sessions are meeting sessions. The moment you get into a team room, it brings about different pressure,” he further added.
However, MS Dhoni didn’t forget to thank his CSK fans and said: “I would love to thank the fans, wherever we’ve played, even when we were in South Africa, we’ve always had a good number of CSK fans. That is what you crave. Thanks to all of them, it feels like we’re playing in Chennai. Hopefully, we’ll be back in Chennai for the fans.”
Now, the focus has shifted to the T20 World Cup where he will mentor the Indian Team as well.
