There are only a few days left for the much-awaited 16th edition of the Indian T20 League to start. The teams have started preparing for the tournament. The second-most successful team in the league, Chennai are also preparing fiercely at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Captain MS Dhoni is ready to play in front of his home crowd once again.
It is believed that this will be Dhoni’s last cash-rich league tournament. However, former Indian and cricketer who also played for Chennai, Suresh Raina have a different opinion on this and said that Dhoni might play in the 17th season as well. Raina is Dhoni’s one of closest friends and has praised him a lot of times earlier as well.
“Agle saal ho sakta hai wo (Dhoni) fir IPL khelein. Unka form achcha lag raha hai, batting achcha kar rahe hain. It all depends ke kaisa khelta hai this season. Kaafi challenging hoga, ek saal se tournament nahi khelein hai wo,” Raina said after the match against the World Giants on Wednesday (March 15) night.
I think Chennai is quite strong: Suresh Raina
Under Dhoni’s captaincy, the Chennai-based franchise won the Indian T20 League title 4 times so far. However, they performed very poorly in the previous season as they finished in the 9th position. So they will be looking for a great comeback this year. Raina believes that the team is looking stronger as they got some great players.
“I think the Chennai-based franchise is quite strong, there are some you players coming in like Ruturaj (Gaikwad), (Devon) Conway, and Ben Stokes is also joining the team,” the former Chennai player added.
Taking a look at Dhoni’s cash-rich league record, he has scored 3682 runs in 234 matches at an average of 39.2 and a strike rate of 135.2 so far. He has also scored the most runs in the tournament while batting at number five. Meanwhile, there are many videos of him doing batting practice on social media that are also going viral due to which the fans are hoping that Dhoni can wreak havoc in this year’s season.
Here’s how the fans reacted:
Budha can't hit six
— Ｒｏｈｉｔｗｏｒｌｄ (@ROHITWORLD45) March 16, 2023
2034 me bhi khel sakta hai Dhoni bhai
— Shardul Thakur 🗨️ (@asliwiseman) March 16, 2023
Fitness of Dhoni 💥🥵 pic.twitter.com/9dnKZt4hoJ
— DhoniFanRoshan 🦁 (@ItsRoshan124) March 16, 2023
— Rizz 🇮🇳 (@SpideyPant17) March 16, 2023
Makes me think how much Raina speaks about MSD. Surely it’s not more than you guys keep stat padding on both 😂
— Maanas (@get2maanas) March 16, 2023
I really miss dhoni, Raina bromance in CSK . They are actual engine of CSK success for all these years. It's sad MR . IPL won't be there. Magical years of Csk has always been special in memories 👏❤
— Shakti Man 💥 (@IamShaktiMann) March 16, 2023
Yein banda mujhe LGTB + waala lagta hai, sabke saath chipkata hai bahut, Dhoni se to anokha naata hai..
— मनु Sam 🇮🇳⚽🥅 🍹☕🍍🍎😎🍴 (@mAnishhastir) March 16, 2023
Varun Chakraborty laughing
— TOTALKOHLI (@LoyalKohliFan18) March 16, 2023
