The Indian Premier League (IPL) on Thursday, March 21 confirmed Ruturaj Gaikwad as the new captain of five-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Gaikwad, who has been with franchise since 2019, has been an integral part of the CSK side from IPL 2021 onwards when he won the Orange Cap scoring 635 runs in a season, which the Men in Yellow ended up winning. Gaikwad has led Team India in three T20Is in the Asian Games where the Men in Blue won Gold and even captained his state side Maharashtra in white-ball games in domestic cricket.
The Super Kings confirmed the development immediately after IPL's confirmation. "MS Dhoni has handed over Chennai Super Kings’ captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad ahead of the start of TATA IPL 2024. Ruturaj has been an integral part of Chennai Super Kings since 2019 and has played 52 matches in IPL during this period," a CSK release said.
CSK has been attempting to put the succession plan in motion since 2022 when MS Dhoni handed over the captaincy to Ravindra Jadeja. However, Dhoni got back captaincy when the team failed to get the desirable results. Dhoni led CSK in the rest of the 15th edition of the IPL and then in 2023 as well where he led the side to their fifth title. However, with the 2024 edition being expected to be his final season, the captaincy switch is not as surprising.
Under Dhoni, CSK won five IPL titles and two Champions League T20 titles while being the most consistent team in the history of the tournament in the 14 seasons they have played. This means that Dhoni's legendary era as a captain has officially ended where he led CSK in 226 matches in the IPL, most for any captain and the team won 133 out of them.
With such a solid squad at the disposal and Dhoni to guide him from behind the stumps, CSK will hope for a successful season under Gaikwad, who is likely to lead the franchise for a number of years to come.
