IPL - 3 reasons why MS Dhoni's record of most number of matches as captain can't be broken

Former legendary Indian captain MS Dhoni is the second-most successful captain in the history of the Indian Premier League with 4 IPL titles, sitting just behind Mumbai Indians’ skipper Rohit Sharma, who got his hands on the coveted trophy 5 times since 2013.

However, if we talk about leading a team in the most number of matches, then it would be none other than Dhoni, who has led Chennai Super Kings 200 times. On that note, we will take a look 3 reasons why MS Dhoni’s record of the most number of matches as captain can’t be broken.

1. Number of IPL seasons required to get to 200+ games as captain

MS Dhoni (Source - Twitter)

The legendary wicketkeeper-batter is leading CSK since 2008, however, the franchise was banned for two years in 2016 and 2017. Dhoni is currently leading CSK for the 14th time in his career. On April 13, 2023, Dhoni played his 200th match as a captain for CSK but lost the match by 3 runs. It looks impossible for any other player to lead a team for this long.

2. Unforgiving nature of the league

CSK players respect for Dhoni (Source - Twitter)

CSK has always respected Dhoni’s decisions, despite his failures, which we often see in any other franchises. For instance, we can talk about, Sunrisers Hyderabad, who didn’t just sack their 2016 champion captain David Warner, but also released him from the team and announced Kane Williamson as their captain. Kolkata Knight Riders did the same when they released Gautam Gambhir ever after his unforgettable contribution of making the franchise two-time champions. However, in 2022, Dhoni himself left CSK’s captaincy, but soon realised it is not the right time and became the captain once again.

3. Workload Management

Virat Kohli (Source - Twitter)

Indian cricket Team skipper Rohit Sharma comes in second place in the most-capped captains list with 146 games. And it won’t be wrong to say that he might leave the captaincy to manage his workload considering the international platform. However, it isn’t the same in Dhoni’s case as he has already retired from international cricket and doesn't have too much of a workload to manage. Earlier, in 2021, former RCB captain Virat Kohli relinquished his captaincy due to much of the pressure of workload.