Chennai Super Kings won their fourth IPL title by defeating Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2021. It was significant for the team that had failed to reach the Playoffs last year. It was also significant for the fans of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and CSK as MS Dhoni in all likelihood is playing his last IPL as a player.
After winning the trophy, Dhoni spoke about Kolkata Knight Riders too. KKR were the best IPL team in the UAE league, well at least until the final. Dhoni, the captain cool started talking about the runners-up first. “Before I start talking about CSK, need to talk about KKR. Difficult to come back and do what they have, if any team deserved to win the IPL, it’s KKR. Huge credit to the coaches, team and support staff. The break really helped them.”
Then the captain started talking about his boys and team. “Coming to CSK, we shuffled players. We had match winners coming game after game and doing really well. Every final is special, if you look at stats, we may say we’re the most consistent team to lose the final too. I feel it’s important to come back strong, especially in the knockouts. Frankly no chats, we don’t talk a lot [meetings]. It’s more one-on-one, our practice sessions are meeting sessions. The moment you get into a team room, it brings about different pressure. Our practice sessions have been good. I would love to thank the fans, wherever we’ve played, even when we were in South Africa, we’ve always had a good number of CSK fans. That is what you crave for. Thanks to all of them, it feels like we’re playing in Chennai.”
He further added, “Hopefully we’ll be back in Chennai for the fans. Again I’ve said it before, it depends on BCCI. With two new teams coming in……we have to decide what is good for CSK. It’s not about me being there in top-three or four. It’s about making a strong core to ensure the franchise doesn’t suffer. The core group, we have to have a hard look to see who can contribute for the next 10 years.”
Dhoni had earlier given enough hint of not playing as a CSK player further. However, he had told about giving the CSK fans to give him farewell. So, Dhoni may become a part of CSK coaching staff going ahead. In fact, when the presenter Harsha Bhogle said, “You can be proud of the legacy you have left behind”, Dhoni laughed and replied, “Still I haven’t left behind….”.
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