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Due to Ruturaj Gaikwad's elbow injury, MS Dhoni will captain the Chennai Super Kings for the remainder of the 2025 Indian Premier League. Having dropped four of their opening five games, CSK is now tenth in the standings. Gaikwad will be unable to play in the IPL 2025 due to an elbow fracture, hence MS Dhoni will captain CSK for the remaining games. On Thursday, April 10, the eve of the team's home matchup with the Kolkata Knight Riders, head coach Stephen Fleming announced the news.
When Gaikwad, 28, faced Tushar Deshpande during CSK's match against the Rajasthan Royals on March 30, he was struck in the elbow. Although he played in the following two games, against the Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals, scans have since revealed a fracture. The five-time winners, who have dropped four of their opening five games this season and will now be without their captain and star batsman in a struggling top order, will suffer a serious blow as a result of the injury. Notably, in three of the previous four seasons, Gaikwad has been CSK's top run scorer.
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Flemming officially confirms Dhoni's return as captain
"He got hit in Guwahati. He's been operating with an amount of pain. We got an X-ray, which was inconclusive, and we had an MRI, which revealed a fracture in his elbow, in the radial neck. So we're disappointed and feel for him. We appreciate the efforts that he's gone to in terms of trying to play, but unfortunately, he'd be out of the tournament from now. We have an uncapped player, MS Dhoni, who will take over as captain for the remainder of the IPL," CSK head coach Stephen Fleming said in Chennai
"He [Dhoni] had no hesitation to step up and help guide us out of this if we can. So that was never a doubt. We'll look at replacements. We've got some good players in the squad that have been with us a while, so we'll look from within first. But yeah, there is an opportunity to see how we can enhance the squad probably moving forward into subsequent years," Fleming said
In 2022, Dhoni momentarily delegated leadership to Ravindra Jadeja before resuming control in the middle of a tumultuous season. Before the 2024 season, Dhoni resigned once more, but he is now back in charge and charged with turning around CSK's struggling campaign. Dhoni has led CSK to an unprecedented degree of success and consistency, captaining them in 235 of their 249 games overall. CSK won two Champions League T20 trophies and five IPL crowns (2010, 2011, 2018, 2021, 2023) while he was captain. Surprisingly, the club made it to the final ten times, including four consecutive years from 2010 to 2013, and only ended outside the top four in two IPL seasons (2020 and 2022).
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