New Delhi: Matthew Hayden believes that the upcoming IPL season will be the close of MS Dhoni’s career in the competition as the Chennai SuperKings skipper gets ready to return to Chepauk.
Dhoni had pulled curtains on his international career in 2020 but has continued playing for CSK and will make his return to their homeground in IPL 2023 after a nearly three-year wait.
CSK will be playing the opener of the upcoming edition as they take on defending champions, Gujarat Titans, on 31st March in Ahmedabad.
The four-time champions will have their first home game on 3rd April when they face Lucknow Super Giants at Chepauk. Former CSK player Hayden commented on the reception Dhoni would receive at Chepauk while speaking exclusively on Star Sports following the announcement of the TATA IPL 2023 schedule.
The former opener said it would be an amazing moment and the city would galvanize around the CSK captain. Hayden then went on to say that he thinks IPL 2023 will be the last time we would see Dhoni play in the competition and said his performance would be key for the franchise this season.
“It will be an amazing moment. I think last year, we were all under the impression that will MSD come back again. At the close of the IPL season, he made that’s huge comment to say that he will be back. Now, what that means for all that Yellow Army is that Chennai suddenly galvanized a tad around the superior leader, who has done it for so long. This will, most certainly, I think, be the close of his IPL career. So, those few games at the start are not only going to be key for the fans, his performance is going to be key for CSK this season,” said Hayden.
Sanjay Manjrekar added to Hayden’s comments and said Dhoni is the type of player you could have in the team purely based on the impact he could have with his leadership qualities.
“Look, having watched T20 cricket over the years, especially with the IPL and the kind of pressures that teams feel, I believe that you can have one player in your team on pure leadership. MS Dhoni doesn’t play regularly, so his impact with the bat is not going to be as much as it was in the prime, but somebody like MS Dhoni, with his leadership experience, you can have him in the team, to make a difference with his leadership. And this is a guy who’s had a team that was called the ‘Old Men Playing IPL Together’ and they won that particular season,” said Manjrekar.
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