MS Dhoni should play one more season to help Ruturaj Gaikwad grow as a captain: Suresh Raina

Speculations are rife that it was possibly the last appearance by CSK’ standard-bearer Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was out in the last over for 25 off 13. However, his former teammate Suresh Raina doesn’t agree with it and he feels CSK and their new captain Ruturaj Gaikwad will need MS Dhoni for one more season.

“Ruturaj Gaikwad needs more time to mature, so MS Dhoni should play one more season,” Raina said on Jio Cinema.

Ruturaj’s post-match reactions

CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad said missing out on key players made a huge difference as they finished fifth in the standing.

“I think it was a good wicket to be honest, it was spinning and gripping a little bit, but I think 200 on this ground was gettable. We kept losing wickets at regular intervals, it was a matter of one or two hits, sometimes that can happen in a T20 game,” he said.

Chennai Super Kings’ captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and Mahendra Singh Dhoni after winning the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 T20 cricket match over Kolkata Knight Riders, at MA Chidambaram Stadium, in Chennai. (PTI)

“Pretty happy with what the target was, to sum up the season, I am pretty happy to have seven wins out of 14 games. Just couldn’t get over the line in the last two balls.

“With the kind of injuries we had, missing out on two frontline bowlers, not having (Devon) Conway at the top of the order as well, I think missing out on three key players made a huge difference.”

Talking about the spate of injuries which affected the team, Gaikwad said: “There were many challenges for us right throughout the first game. Injury to Fizz (Mustafiur Rahman), then injruy to (Matheesha) Pathirana as well, he came back and then again Pathirana missed out. When you have injuries around, you have to get that balance in the team and pick it (the team) for every game.

“I think this season sums up well where we had to tinker around with our playing XI, considering the injuries and all the illness (of the players) as well. Happy with the seven wins, couldn’t get over the line though. Happy with it.

“We got 10 from the last 2 balls in our last knockout game last year so this was a similar situation, things didn’t go our way (this season) though,” he added.

How RCB qualified?

Chennai needed 219 runs for an outright win but needed only 201 to reach the playoffs, but it was 10 runs short as left-arm pacer Yash Dayal held his nerve while bowling the last over. Bengaluru sneaked through on net run rate ahead of three other teams with the same 7-7 win-loss records.