There was a semblance of cricketing stalwarts at Chennai after India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and some notable players of the Chennai Super Kings franchise landed up at Tamil Nadu's capital city on Friday to undergo a short training camp ahead of the thirteenth season of the IPL in the UAE.


While MS Dhoni hogged most of the attention, the other notable players from the 3-time champion team who reached the city for the week-long conditioning camp beginning on Saturday at the M A Chidambaram stadium are Suresh Raina, Deepak Chahar, Piyush Chawla and Kedar Jadhav. The major notable absentee was all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja who is giving the camp a miss due to personal commitments.

3-time IPL champions Chennai Super Kings posted pictures of MS Dhoni and other players arriving in Chennai on their social media page.

Dhoni who has been on a self imposed hiatus from competitive cricket ever since India's semifinal exit from the ICC 2019 ODI World Cup last year in July is planning to get back to the Indian team with some noteworthy performances in the IPL, which starts on September 19.

As per the stringent SOP protocols laid down by the BCCI, all the cricketers who have assembled at Chennai would be subject to two Covid-19 tests and will only make the flight to Dubai for the upcoming IPL season if they return negative for coronavirus, the official added.


For getting their batsmen in good knick and form ahead of th thirteenth season, the franchise has picked eight net bowlers from Tamil Nadu and they will also travel with the side to the UAE.

The Dhoni-led CSK had organised a camp from March 2 ahead of the originally scheduled March 29 start of the event before it was suspended owing to the coronavirus pandemic.