Ruturaj Gaikwad, the newly appointed Chennai Super Kings captain, has revealed that his predecessor MS Dhoni had given him hints regarding a potential leadership switch last year. Just one day prior to the commencement of IPL 2024, the change was indeed made, with Dhoni handing over the captaincy to Gaikwad while still remaining a player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I need to change anything. Last year itself, Mahi bhai had just hinted about the captaincy at some point,\u201d Gaikwad told IPLT20.com. \u201cHe just hinted, \u2018Be ready, it shouldn\u2019t be a surprise to you\u2019. When we came into the camp, obviously he made me involved in some of the practice match simulations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Dhoni had put up a cryptic post on social media announcing that he would be taking up a \u2018new role\u2019. \u201cI remember him posting about a new role on social media, and everybody was just pointing towards me and asking, \u2018Are you the next captain?\u2019 I was like, \u2018Maybe it meant something else for social media\u2019. At the back of my mind, it was there. I would say just a week before we came, he said, \u2018I\u2019ve decided this\u2019, but definitely now that I\u2019m here, I\u2019m really looking forward to this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old was first signed by CSK in 2019, but he had to wait until the 2020 season for opportunities. Initially struggling to make a mark in the middle order and losing his place, he returned to the XI at the back end of the season and opened the innings, smashing three fifties in a row. Since then, he has been an integral part of the XI, has won the tournament twice, and was also the Orange Cap winner in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels great, I think for two reasons,\u201d Gaikwad said, looking back at the journey. \u201cFirst of all, to be part of this wonderful franchise right from when my IPL journey started, and then to be trusted by MS Dhoni for a leadership role obviously speaks a lot. The challenge lies ahead, and I\u2019m looking forward to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight from day one, I liked how this particular franchise works throughout the year. I kind of got to know the real mantra, the reasons behind their success, what kind of things the franchise goes through, what Mahi bhai does, what the management or the support staff does. I wouldn\u2019t like to change a single bit of it. For me, he (Dhoni) is a great backbone to have still on the field. I have Ajju (Ajinkya Rahane) bhai and Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja) bhai as well, so definitely a lot of options to look around. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll need to change anything. Just give the kind of freedom the players want, and I think everything will be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ruturaj Gaikwad, the newly appointed Chennai Super Kings captain, has revealed that his predecessor MS Dhoni had given him hints\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":41966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3720,69],"class_list":["post-21497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ipl","tag-ipl-2024","tag-ms-dhoni"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}