Reports | MS Dhoni likely to feature in IPL 2021
Former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is nowhere close to retirement as sources confirmed that he has informed Chennai Super Kings' franchise owners that he will be playing the 2021 edition of the IPL. Dhoni was recently seen returning to practice at the JSCA Stadium in his hometown Ranchi.
MS Dhoni has not featured in the Indian team ever since the end of the World Cup and question marks were raised over his future, with reports of a retirement. However, those reports seem to have been put to rest now as sources close to the Chennai Super Kings informed TOI that Dhoni is nowhere close to retirement and is looking to also play in the 2021 edition of the IPL.
There will be a big auction before the 2021 edition and Dhoni wants to help rebuild the Super Kings in order to form a solid core for the next three years. He is also eyeing a comeback in the Indian team and IPL 2020 will be a crucial factor because it will more or less decide the 15 that will represent India in next year's T20 World Cup Down Under.
"There will be a big auction before the 2021 IPL and Dhoni has already told us that he will play the tournament. So there's no question of his retirement from the T20 version anytime soon. He wants to go back to the auction pool for the big auction that will take place ahead of the 2021 season. That will give CSK the option of using the Right-to-Match card to pick him, maybe for a lower price. Being the captain he is, Dhoni is ready to sacrifice money for the CSK cause," a CSK source told TOI.
The Indian team management, meanwhile, is backing young Rishabh Pant in the white-ball format but seeing him go through a bad run of form, bringing back Dhoni would be somewhere at the back of the mind of the think tank.
"There has been a perception that the Indian team management doesn't know what Dhoni is doing, but it may not be completely true. If he has a good IPL, he will very much be part of India's scheme of things in the T20 World Cup in December," the source reckoned.
CSK has had a side that had many players on the wrong side of 30 since 2018 and even though they won the title that year, Dhoni is well aware that a massive rebuild will be required to replace aged players like Dwayne Bravo, Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir, Shane Watson, etc. He will be looking forward to helping the franchise decide which players to retain and which new young players to target and add to the squad in the mega auction before the 2021 edition.
"It will be after the 2021 IPL that the question of retirement will come, if at all...And even if he retires, Dhoni will always be the mentor of CSK," the source concluded.
