"Only time will tell whether MS Dhoni will play IPL 2024.."- Ravi Shastri

Former India cricketer and one of the exclusive cricketers to have won the 50-over World Cup Ravi Shastri has shared his two cents about MS Dhoni handing over the captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad. During a discussion with Mayanti Langer on Star Sports, Shastri also shed light on the IPL 2024 season, possibly being Dhoni’s final year of the tournament.

The former CSK captain will be in live-action today when the Delhi Capitals host the reigning champions for match number 13 at the ACA-VDCA stadium in Vishakhapatnam.

Today, we will be seeing the re-union of a master and his apprentice who took over the wicket-keeping batting role from the former before enduring a life-threatening accident.

Yes, we are talking about MS Dhoni and Rishabh Pant. This will be the first time since that car crash that Pant will be walking down in the field to try and win against the Yellow Army.

With this being MS Dhoni’s final season of the tournament, every single match that he plays is going to be very special. But what most of us will be hoping for is that he comes to bat in the match against DC.

Dhoni hasn’t batted a single minute of IPL 2024 from CSK’s opening two matches against Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Gujarat Titans. However, the 42-year-old has not missed out on contributing behind the stumps with his wicket-keeping gloves on.

Shastri claims MS Dhoni will give freedom to Gaikwad

Ravi Shastri first stated that everything depends on the fitness levels of MS Dhoni and how his body copes with everything for him to play the entire 2024 season. “This is MS Dhoni’s last season okay, very clear. You know depends how his body copes with everything, whether he plays the whole season or doesn’t play the whole season, only time will tell.” – Shastri said via Star Sports.

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Shastri then spoke about MS Dhoni giving freedom to Ruturaj Gaikwad in terms of carrying out captaincy in his way and just helping the latter when required. The 1983 World Cup further added that it would not be like how he acted during the season when Ravindra Jadeja was appointed as captain. Shastri feels that MSD will take the backseat, watch from behind, and share his inputs only when it’s required.

“But what he has done is that he said, I don’t want to give the job to Ruturaj halfway through the tournament. Be in the hot seat from the outside, I am watching from the back, if he needs some help I’m there to help him out but I think as compared to the year when Jadeja was captain, MS will take more and more of the backseat and probably contribute just in a little way between the drinks break or something like that.” – Shastri added.

“He’ll give him the freedom, I see him giving him the freedom to go and express himself and if he needs to be corrected then you know.” – Ravi Shastri concluded.

Did you know MS Dhoni is the highest run-scorer against DC?

Here’s an interesting statistic before CSK plays DC tonight is that MS Dhoni is the highest run-scorer with 629 runs for the 5-time champions against the North-Indian outfit. Not only runs, but he also has the highest number of sixes (32) scored against DC and is level with former batter Suresh Raina in terms of most fifties (3).