MS Dhoni will play the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2026), confirms Chennai Super Kings (CSK) CEO Kasi Viswanathan. During an exclusive interview with NDTV, he clearly stated that the former India cricketer will continue to take the field donning the yellow jersey.
Currently, most of the top-class cricketers are busy in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2026. The IPL 2026 will be started after the conclusion of the tournament. According to the schedule, the cash-rich league will commence in the last week of the next month.
CSK CEO clears all air around MS Dhoni
Like the previous few seasons, ahead of the upcoming season, there are a lot of speculations about MS Dhoni’s chances in the league as a cricketer, who is now 44, well over his prime.
Many cricket fans believe, and sometimes speak out openly on social media platforms, that Dhoni has nothing new to offer the team, especially at this age. Dhoni himself faced questions related to his IPL retirement on multiple occasions. While Dhoni mostly keeps the professional approach around himself, the CSK CEO talks straight.
“He will play, he will play,” Viswanathan said while speaking with NDTV.
Dhoni will never retire from CSK
In February this year, during another interaction, Kasi Viswanathan revealed a lot about their future plans, with MS Dhoni as the central character. He mentioned that Dhoni will be with the franchise forever. Because he is not only a cricketer, he is also still a crowd player and brand name, which helps the franchise grow in other sports arenas as well.
“MSD will surely play this season and will be with CSK forever. And the very next step for us will be to invest in women’s cricket. You can be sure of it,” he said, as quoted by RevSportz.
In the same interaction, he explained why they invested in a young MS Dhoni in 2008, while other franchises were interested in some of the icons of Indian cricket.
“We picked MSD in the auction in 2008 and must say he will forever stay our best investment. Most other teams had an icon player. Mumbai had Sachin, Kolkata had Sourav, Bengaluru had Rahul, and so on. We did not, and we went for Dhoni, for VB Chandrasekhar had mentioned him to N. Srinivasan, saying he would make a fantastic leader. How correct he was!” Kasi Viswanathan said.
Dhoni’s batting stats in IPL 2025
Dhoni, under whose leadership Chennai Super Kings claimed 5 IPL titles, scored 196 runs in 13 innings, including a highest score of an unbeaten 30. He used to come late in the batting order to offer game time to other batters in the team.
In the upcoming season, Ruturaj Gaikwad is expected to lead the team. In IPL 2025, Dhoni returned to captaincy after Gaikwad’s injury after a few initial matches of the league.
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