File photo of CSK skipper MS Dhoni (left) with Faf du Plessis.
It was a huge sigh of relief for Indian cricket fans when MS Dhoni confirmed before Chennai Super Kings’ last match of Indian Premier League 2020 that the 39 years old will continue playing IPL next year as well.
The CSK captain, who took the yellow-clad outfit to three titles, did say that the team’s core requires an overhaul while focus needs to be on nurturing the young players for next 10 years after the side finished bottom of the table.
This has prompted former Indian cricketer and batting coach Sanjay Bangar to believe that MSD, who earlier retired from international cricket in August, might not be continuing in the captaincy role anymore and pass on the baton to team’s senior batsman and South African skipper Faf du Plessis.
“So as far as I can understand, I feel that MS Dhoni may not be the captain next year and may play as a player and give the captaincy at this stage to Faf du Plessis for the transition to happen under Faf du Plessis,” Bangar said on Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected.
“Because as of now, they do not have any other option as a captain and if you talk outside the team, in the auction or in the trading, none of the teams would be releasing a player who has the capability of become the captain of CSK.”
Bangar further revealed that MSD was intending on quitting Team India captaincy after World Cup triumph but carried on with the role with some tough series in the fray.
“As far as I know, MS Dhoni might have thought after 2011 if he should be continuing to captain the Indian team but he knew that India had quite a few tough encounters after that, we had to go and play in England and Australia and at that time there was no captaincy candidate ready, so he only handled that burden and at the right time he handed over the captaincy to Virat Kohli and he also played after that,” Bangar said.
Dhoni quit as Test captain in December 2014 while handed over limited-over format captaincy to Kohli in January 2017.
