We Are Confident MS Dhoni Will Lead CSK Again In 2021: Franchise CEO Kasi Viswanathan

Despite Dhoni’s poor outing with the willow and some bizarre captaincy decisions of his in the ongoing season in UAE, CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan is pretty confident that the franchise's legendary cricketer will once again don the captaincy hat in 2021.

MS Dhoni

It has been a rather disappointing season for MS-Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) as the 3-time Indian Premier League champions have been already eliminated from the playoff race in Season 13 of the coveted league being staged in the United Arab Emirates. Enduring one their most miserable IPL seasons, CSK failed to reach the play-offs for the first time in their 10-season long stint in the IPL after Rajasthan Royals' (RR) beat defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) to dash all the hopes for Dhoni-led 'Yellow Brigade'. With CSK's rather shocking exit, they have been speculations around what would be the future of their skipper MS Dhoni and some of the senior and established players who are now well into their mid 30s. Despite Dhoni’s poor outing with the willow and some bizarre captaincy decisions of his in the ongoing season in UAE, CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan is pretty confident that the franchise's legendary cricketer will once again don the captaincy hat in 2021. "Yes, definitely. I am very confident that Dhoni will lead CSK in 2021. He has won three titles for us in the IPL. This is the first year we have not qualified for the playoffs. No other team has done that. One bad year does not mean we will have to change everything," Viswanathan told The Times of India. Bottom placed CSK who have just four wins to show in their 12 league encounter so far, did not gel well as a team and were more than often overpowered by more formidable opponents. With the exception of Faf du Plessis and Sam Curran, a majority of the tried and tested CSK players failed to live upto their standards and potential on the green turf. CSK were dent a major blow in the initial stages of the tournament as their star cricketers Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh pulled out of the 13th edition due to personal reasons. Viswanathan admitted the fact that the absence of two key players and the initial Covid-19 outbreak in the camp ahead of the season did affect the team’s balance. "We didn't play to our potential this season. We lost games that we should have won. That pushed us back. The withdrawals of Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh coupled with Covid cases in the camp meant that the balance of the side was upset," he added.