New Delhi: In a recent Facebook post, former Indian skipper MS Dhoni, who led the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to their fifth IPL title in 2023, teased fans by hinting at a “new role” for the upcoming season. Dhoni expressed his excitement about the approaching IPL season, sparking curiosity among supporters regarding his potential role within the team.
“Can’t wait for the new season and the new ‘role’. Stay tuned,” Dhoni posted on Facebook.
Dhoni has had one of the most inspiring journeys in sports history. From working as a ticket collector at a railway station, he transformed into India’s biggest trophy collector, leading the team to the ICC T20 World Cup 2007, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and ICC Champions Trophy 2013 as skipper.
Dhoni has led CSK to five IPL titles in 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023. Dhoni has also led CSK to two CLT20 titles in 2010 and 2014. With this, he is not only the most successful captain in franchise cricket as well, but cricket in general.
The right-handed batter has played 250 IPL matches, mostly for CSK, other than a stint with Rising Pune Supergiant from 2016 to 2017. In these matches, he has scored 5,082 runs at an average of 38.79. He has also scored 24 half-centuries in the tournament. He also has 142 catches and 42 stumpings.
As a captain, he led India in 60 Test matches, out of which they won 27 matches, lost 18 and drew 15. With a win percentage of 45.00, he is one of India’s most successful skippers across all eras. He led Team India to the number one ranking in the ICC Test Rankings. He is also the only Indian skipper to whitewash Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, doing so in the 2010-11 and 2012-13 series.
Dhoni’s strongest format was the ODIs. In 350 ODIs, he scored 10,773 runs at an average of 50.57. He scored 10 centuries and 73 fifties for India, with the best score of 183*. He is India’s fifth-highest scorer in ODIs (with Sachin Tendulkar at the top with 18,426 runs). He is also the 11th most successful ODI batter of all time. The fact that he managed to score 10,000-plus runs at an average of over 50 while coming down the order makes his statistics even more astonishing.
