Faf du Plessis to replace MS Dhoni as Chennai Super Kings skipper for IPL 2021?

MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings endured a torrid time in IPL 2020 as they failed to reach the playoffs of the tournament for the first time ever. The three-time champions struggled for impact in the league stages and struggled with inconsistency, injuries and lack of intent. Although MS Dhoni has said that he is ‘Definitely Not’ retiring from the IPL and will be available even for 2021, Chennai Super Kings might do some changes to their strategy in order to avoid a repeat of their debacle in 2020. There are speculations that MS Dhoni might relinquish his captaincy as well.

In a recent interaction on Star Sports’s show Cricket Connected between Sanjay Bangar and Irfan Pathan, Bangar said that MS Dhoni might not be the captain for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2021. “I feel that MS Dhoni may not be the captain next year and may play as a player and give the captaincy at this stage to Faf du Plessis for the transition to happen under Faf du Plessis. Because as of now, they do not have any other option as a captain and if you talk outside the team, in the auction or in the trading, none of the teams would be releasing a player who has the capability of become the captain of CSK,” Bangar said.

Thought of quitting in 2011

MS Dhoni achieved glory for India during his captaincy stint in his near-decade long tenure. In 2007, MS Dhoni won the ICC World T20 while in 2011, he broke a 28-year jinx and helped India win the ICC World Cup at home. In 2013, MS Dhoni won the ICC Champions Trophy making him the first captain to win all three major ICC trophies.

Bangar revealed that MS Dhoni might have thought to retire after the end of the 2011 World Cup but he chose to stay at the helm due to some tough series. “MS Dhoni might have thought after 2011 if he should be continuing to captain the Indian team but he knew that India had quite a few tough encounters after that, we had to go and play in England and Australia and at that time there was no captaincy candidate ready, so he only handled that burden and at the right time he handed over the captaincy to Virat Kohli and he also played after that,” Bangar said,

MS Dhoni relinquished the Test captaincy in 2014 during the series in Australia while he handed over the captaincy in ODIs and T20I to Virat Kohli in 2017. MS Dhoni announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket on August 15, 2020.