All eyes are on MS Dhoni at the moment as the cricket world eagerly waits to get an update on his future as a player. During the last IPL too, there were rumours of Dhoni retiring at the end of the tournament but the former India skipper decided otherwise. And once again, the talk of the town is Dhoni’s future as a cricketer. Before the start of the ongoing season, Dhoni had walked down as Chennai Super Kings skipper, sparking rumours that IPL 2022 might be his last.
However, he recently took back the captaincy from Ravindra Jadeja and has showed that he has still a lot to offer on the cricket field. Amidst all these, former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar is hopeful that the CSK will return to play in the IPL next year. The legendary cricketer’s comment came after CSK became the second team to be knocked out of the playoffs race in IPL 2022. CSK suffered a crushing 5-wicket loss at the hands of Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium.
Sunil Gavaskar on MS Dhoni’s future:
Talking about MS Dhoni, Gavaskar said that Dhoni’s performance this season showed he is still keen and enthusiastic about the game. The former cricketer-turned-commentator also said that he is “definitely not” going to hang up his boots after the ongoing season. Against Mumbai, Dhoni was CSK’s top-scorer, scoring an unbeaten 36 while his teammates failed to put up a fight with the bat. The four-time winners were all out for a paltry total of 97. It was only the second time in the history of the IPL that CSK failed to cross the 100-run mark.
“Well, I mean, look at the way he has played. He is clearly showing he is very keen, still enthusiastic about the game,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.
“On the field, it was quite telling today. He was running from one end to the other end, which means he was keen. He senses an opportunity when those 2 or 3 early wickets fell. We have seen him doing this very regularly. Which means ‘definitely not’. Yes (he will continue), that is exactly what he said when he was asked about it (in 2020),” he added.
Gavaskar referred to Dhoni’s famous one-liner ‘definitely not’ while talking about the wicketkeeper-batsman future. Dhoni had famously said ‘definitely not’ when he was asked after CSK’s last match in IPL 2020 whether he would consider retiring from the game. Talking about the veteran’s performance this season, he has scored 199 runs in 12 matches at an average of 39.80.