It was a shocker for everyone when the legendary MS Dhoni decided to step down from Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) captaincy right ahead of Indian Premier League's (IPL) 15th edition. Dhoni passed on the captaincy baton to team's star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja after leading CSK since the inaugural season of 2008. The decision casted a spell of disappointment for many fans including Dhoni's teammate Devon Conway who is CSK's latest acquisition and was roped in for a whopping amount of Rs 1 crore.
In a video posted by CSK’s official Twitter handle, New Zealand's opener Conway was heard expressing his admiration for Dhoni and his legacy as Chennai Super Kings skipper.
“I said, ‘you’re sure you don’t want to captain one more season so I can play under you as captain?’ But he said, ‘No, but I am always going to be around anyway. It was really cool,” Convoy said in a video posted by CSK on Twitter.
The 30-year-old Kiwi opener also spoke about his moment with Dhoni and Jadeja when they had dinner together. He also termed Dhoni as the best captain in IPL history.
“A couple of days ago I had lunch and sat in between MS and Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja). It was really cool just to get to know them better” said the southpaw.
In a clash against two-time title holders Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL 2022 opener, Conway made his IPL debut for CSK. The left-hander to failed to make a mark and was dismissed for 3 off 8 balls as CSK got restricted to 131/5 in their 20 overs. Dhoni emerged the highest scorer for the Chennai team scoring 50 off 38 balls. In reply, Shreyas Iyer-led side easily overhauled the total in 18.3 overs with six wickets remaining.
Meanwhile, the four-time IPL winners CSK will next face Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Thursday as they aim to get their mojo back.
CSK are placed in group A alongside RCB, SRH, PBKS and the newcomers Gujarat Lions. They are currently placed seventh in the points table with every team having played one game each in the season so far.
Chennai Super Kings' full squad: Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Dwayne Bravo, Ambati Rayudu, Robin Uthappa, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Tushar Deshpande, KM Asif, Shivam Dube, Maheesh Theekshana, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Samarjeet Singh, Devon Conway, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Subhranshu Senapati, Adam Milne, Mukesh Choudhary, Prashant Solanki, C Hari Nishaanth, N Jagadeesan, Chris Jordan, K Bhagath Varma.
