The start of yet another season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is less than 48 hours away. While the first match of the competition will be played between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings on March 31 (Friday), this time around there will also be a grand opening ceremony at the world's largest cricket stadium and the list of performers confirmed so far already seems impressive.
While earlier in the day, the organisers had confirmed that Indian actor Tamannah Bhatia will be performing in the ceremony prior to the match number 1 of the competition, now the tournament organisers have confirmed that renowned Indian singer Arijit Singh will also be entertaining the fans in the opening ceremony.
Check out the official announcement here:
On the cricketing front, IPL 2023 will witness the tournament return to its traditional home and away format. This implies that MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings will get to play at the Chepauk this time around. This has further fuelled speculation over Dhoni's retirement as he had previously said that he would want to bow out in front of his home crowd - the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Even though Dhoni last played an international match for India in 2019, there hardly seems to be a dip in his popularity with thousands of fans turning up and cheering for him at a practice session. The video of the same was shared on social media by the franchise and went viral.
When Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma was asked if this could be Dhoni's last IPL, he said that he has been hearing about the retirement rumours since 2-3 years. He reckoned that the 41-year-old could continue to play for another 2-3 years.
Meanwhile, there has not been any official confirmation of his retirement. But with Chennai finishing ninth on the ten-team table last season, one thing is for sure the Men in Yellow would want to come back strong this year with their skipper leading from the front.