Of the many question in front of the India Premier League teams, one major one is for Chennai Super Kings. The defending IPL champions have retained their long-time captain MS Dhoni, who led them to title last season. At 42, MS Dhoni is in his last few years of professional cricket. After Chennai Super Kings' IPL 2023 win, MS Dhoni said that though it was the most appropriate time for him to retire but added that given the love showered on him by fans, he would want to continue for one more year. Now the question is, who will lead Chennai Super Kings after MS Dhoni.
Chennai Super Kings had roped in Ben Stokes , who was seen as a potential captaincy successor to MS Dhoni. However, Ben Stokes was released ahead of the IPL 2024 auction. Now, the decision is with MS Dhoni and the CSK team management as to who will be the next captain.
In the midst of this, a X user with the name @CricketWithRosh quoted Ravichandran Ashwin as saying: "Sanju Samson was approached by CSK as a captain which was nearly finalised. But it dint go through Sanju rejected their offer. Theres a definite possibility in future".
Ashwin, who is incidentally a player of Rajasthan Royals - that is led by Sanju Samson, termed the post as fake news. "Fake news! Dont lie quoting me," Ashwin wrote.
Ahead of the IPL auction, star India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, gave his take on how the franchises might strategise at the IPL 2024 auction. Among the batters, Rajasthan Royals player Ashwin backed power-hitter Shahrukh Khan to back big bucks.
Shahrukh Khan played for Punjab Kings at the 2022 IPL. In 14 matches, he scored 156 at a strike-rate of 165.96.
"I can definitely see a war between CSK and Gujarat for Shahrukh Khan. Gujarat have let go of Hardik Pandya , Gujarat needs a player who can finish the innings, a sort of power player. and they need a power player. Shahrukh was at Rs 9 crore At Kings, and I though he showed his skills pretty well. Is it a decent release? Because I think he might end up going for Rs 12-13 crore again," said Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube channel.
"CSK might even take a chance of missing out on Mitchell Starc to get Shahrukh Khan because they don't have a local player or a presence. They went for Shahrukh Khan in the mega auction, and that's why I'm guessing so."