Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the legendary Indian cricketer and captain of the Indian Premier League side Chennai Super Kings, has begun his preparations for the 2023 edition of the cash-rich league. The 41-year-old right-handed wicketkeeper-batter, who announced his retirement from international cricket on August 15, 2020, and now only plays in the IPL, was seen batting at the nets recently.
A video of the four-time IPL winning skipper is going viral on social media platforms, in which he can be seen batting at the nets.
With less than three months to go before the start of IPL 2023, Dhoni has begun his preparations for the megaevent. The cash-rich League’s next season is expected to begin in the last week of March or the first week of April. Dhoni, who has represented CSK in 13 seasons, is set to lead the Chennai-based team once again. The 2023 edition is likely to be his last, and therefore he would want to make sure that he leads the Chennai Super Kings to their record-equaling fifth IPL title.
In the last three IPL seasons, despite playing all the matches, Dhoni has failed to fire with the bat. He scored 200 runs in 14 matches of the IPL 2020 season, 114 in 16 matches of the 2021 season, and 232 runs in 14 matches of last year’s edition.
CSK last won the IPL trophy in the 2021 season, when they defeated Kolkata Knight Riders in the final. After a high in 2021, CSK failed to fire in the 2022 season and finished in ninth place. They would like to bounce back from the poor outing of last year. In the 2023 IPL, CSK will be bolstered by the return of Deepak Chahar, who missed the last edition of the world’s richest franchise cricket league. In addition to Chahar, CSK will also have England all-rounder Ben Stokes in the team this year. The New Zealand-born cricketer, who is the captain of England’s Test team, was signed for a record sum of Rs 16.25 crore in the IPL 2023 mini auction that took place in Kochi last month.
