What do we know about MS Dhoni?
Well, he's a pretty good cricketer, looks his best with long hair, hits the ball like it stole all of his life savings and embarrassed his wife on live TV. Sakshi will never appeal for a bump ball ever again. Or be more mindful that she usually sits next to a person with the power to turn a T20 World Cup semi-final into filler content.
In March, she posted an Instagram story on her way to the airport. "Back in 75 days Ranchi" said the caption. People started putting two and two together. Dhoni is 44, at the back end of his career and will have his family at every single IPL game in 2026. All of which turned out to be true except for one minor detail. The season is more than halfway gone and Dhoni is yet to play. A calf injury has forced him out of sight.
"I know he's been upping his running speeds," CSK batting coach Michael Hussey said, "And that's probably the sticking point. I think we're very confident from a skill perspective with his batting and his wicketkeeping, but it was just making sure that he could maintain good running power, particularly towards the back end of an innings where he's going to have to scan for those ones and twos.
"So as soon as he's got the confidence in his calf, then I'm sure he'll give it the tick to ready to go. And so we're kind of guided by him at the moment. We're waiting. I think all of Chennai's waiting. All the fans are waiting and hoping. We're just waiting for him to sort of say, yeah, okay, I'm confident in my leg now. I can give my best efforts."
Dhoni is actually staying away from the ground on match days. "He always wants what's best for the team," Hussey said, "And he was worried that if he came, there'd be a bit too much of a distraction.
"Obviously, the cameras would be on him a lot. The crowd would be cheering for him and things like that. And he really wanted the team to just be able to go about their job, do our thing. Whether that's right or wrong, that's not my decision to sort of make, but that's the thinking behind it."
What do we know about MS Dhoni?
Well, apparently he's the girl in the red dress from the girl in the red dress meme.
"Obviously, he's been watching very closely back home," Hussey continued. "I personally love having him around the dressing room. He offers so much wisdom. He offers so much confidence to the rest of the guys. So he's obviously at training all the time and always a bubbly personality around training and offers a lot of his experience to the players there. But it was just a case he didn't want to see himself as a distraction to the rest of the team and that's why he decided on game day just to sort of stay away."
CSK's opening game against Rajasthan Royals just over a month ago was kind of historic. It was their first one ever without either Dhoni or Suresh Raina in the XI. At the time, it felt like a first glimpse into this team's future. When asked if he thought so as well, head coach Stephen Fleming insisted that though Dhoni wasn't there in body he was very much there in soul. He was probably aware he wasn't just addressing a room full of reporters but the legions online who need no invitation to take sides. Here, you're either with one of the greatest players India has ever produced or have a hankering for less than civil and respectful discourse.
A few days ago, Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling coach Muthiah Muralidaran said the IPL is a business and for it to stay booming some sacrifices have to be made. Like the idea of an even contest between bat and ball. Expanding on that, teams are like corporations, players are like assets and CSK hold an incredibly valuable one. They will be in no rush to part with it or risk further damage to it. And so this saga continues. Every year, the question that comes up during the IPL is whether Dhoni will be able to play the next one. This year, the question that keeps coming up is whether he'll be able to play this one. For the record, the signs are not bad though he could've given himself more of a chance to test his mobility instead of everybody else's.
The stadium staff struggled to keep up with the balls Dhoni was hitting into the stands. This was a long net session, by the way. Not his usual, come for the last half hour, hit a few off the middle and leave. He had time to check out Hardik Pandya's bat, chat about the good old days with Kieron Pollard and spend forty minutes to an hour seeing if he could bring down a star or at the very least bits of the Chepauk's roof.
