MS Dhoni and Ruturaj Gaikwad© AFP
The big news for Chennai Super Kings ahead of the IPL 2024 season was the decision to replace MS Dhoni with Ruturaj Gaikwad as the captain. Dhoni ended his long tenure as the CSK captain and put his support behind Ruturaj as the new leader of the side. While the move to appoint Hardik Pandya in place of Rohit Sharma as the Mumbai Indians captain was not accepted well by the fanbase, the CSK fans were happy with Ruturaj with Dhoni backing him. CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan opened up about the decision process and praised Ruturaj for leading the side well and also the smooth transition.
“The discussions we had with the team management from before a couple of years when Ruturaj came into the CSK and started performing well, we felt that he will be a good choice to captain the side. Both Flem (Fleming) and MS (Dhoni) had long discussions with him, they had plans to make him as a future captain,” Viswanathan told CSK in a YouTube video.
“His performances and also the way he approached the game, and his thoughts whenever he spoke with MS as well as Fleming… both of them felt that he’ll be a good captain at CSK. And we were not disappointed. He led the side comfortably. The seniors also helped him. It has not affected his performance with the bat. He has continued to be a very consistent performer.”
“The pressure of captaincy has not affected him. We look forward to his contribution to CSK in the future. The pressure is too high because he’s following the footsteps of MS Dhoni. Nobody can match him, but MS had the confidence that Rutu (Gaikwad) has it in him to do a very good job. The acceptance from the crowd really helped him for sure, that is for sure. Because if there is pressure from the crowd, you can imagine what happened to other captains,” he added.
Viswanathan also pointed out that the transition was helped by the fact that the management prefers to not interfere with cricketing matters when it comes to CSK.
“I think CSK fans accepted what MS Dhoni had given to Ruturaj as captain because he (Dhoni) had chosen him. The team management chose him as the captain. And all of you know, never has the management of CSK interfered with the cricketing matters. So, that helped Rutu also, because he was very clear that the instructions have come from team management. He had the responsibility to deliver. I’m confident he will do very well in the future years also,” the CSK CEO concluded.
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