CSK’s poor outing raised serious questions about MS Dhoni’s captaincy, who took charge of the team midway through this season after Ruturaj Gaikwad’s elbow injury. Apart from captaincy, Dhoni’s strike rate in crunch situations was not up to the mark either to get CSK over the line on multiple occasions. Speaking about Dhoni’s leadership in this IPL season, former Indian cricketer Atul Wassan said that there’s only so much a captain can do with his team.

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“A captain is as good as the team he gets; if I give the Zimbabwe team to Clive Lloyd, he won’t be good either. Dhoni’s captaincy should be rated based on the team he got; when he had the team in the past, we all know what he did. In my opinion, captaincy is at times overrated,” Wassan said on the latest episode of the Bails and Banter Show on OTTPlay.

‘Dhoni is CSK; CSK is Dhoni’

A lot has been said about Dhoni and his future. For the last five seasons, his reply to whether he could return next season has been. “I have a few months to decide; I will see how the body holds up”. Given the peak MS Dhoni response he left with last evening, do not rule out a return in IPL 2026. IPL 2023 could have been the ideal exit for Dhoni, lifting the title in his final season as CSK’s full-time captain. But he returned the following year, hoping to play in front of his beloved Chennai crowd. He would have expected to bow out on a high, but plans turned sour when CSK narrowly missed the Playoffs. As for this year, the less said about CSK, the better.

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Wassan, however, reckons that it’s Dhoni’s love for the fans that keeps bringing him back. Dhoni knows he is no longer the destructive force he once was and has nothing to prove. And until and unless the franchise or the management take some very drastic measures, Dhoni will surely feature in IPL 2026, even if he is not in his best form or fitness, believes Wassan.

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“Dhoni is CSK, and CSK is Dhoni. CSK could have been doing good or not alongside Dhoni, but he is still recovering money for the franchise. Dhoni knows that his best days are gone, but he is still playing and facing the criticism. It shows how much attached he is to the franchise. Otherwise, why would someone who has achieved everything put himself in this situation? And I believe he would be up next year as well, despite not being at his 100 percent,” said Wassan.