Who after Dhoni in CSK hot seat?

Bengaluru: In the minutes you spend talking to Chennai Super Kings CEO Kasi Viswanathan, you get a sense of why the Indian Premier League franchise is as successful as it has been since 2008. 

The five-time champions may have levelled Mumbai Indians in terms of trophies won as of last season, but Mumbai and the rest of the league pale in comparison to Chennai’s consistency. 

The primary reason behind this success lies in the way the organisation is built to allow players to execute roles without interference. Franchise owner and former Board of Control for Cricket in India chief N Srinivasan adhered to this policy when he handed the team to a long-haired, cheeky strategist from Ranchi back in 2008. 

The upcoming season of the IPL is going to be the 17th edition of the tournament, and the long hair is back as a statement piece, but you can tell that the ride is mostly over after this. 

MS Dhoni’s career as the face and the emotion of a City is likely to come to an end a couple of months from now. He’s 42-years-old and his knees can’t do more than they already have. Aesthetically speaking, he looks better than he had in some phases during his career as an international cricketer for India, but that’s only the surface truth.

Chennai Super Kings will not have Dhoni as a skipper for much longer, and, likely, he has already begun the process of passing on the baton to someone in the side. 

“We have no say in the matter,” Viswanathan tells DH when asked about who will take over the role after Dhoni’s exit. “That’s up to the captain. The coach (Stephen Fleming) and the captain have already looked at options and they will work it out. We don’t worry about such things in CSK. The captain will figure things out. I only have to worry about ticket sales and how to manage the crowds which come into the stadium."

“We have not had a meeting to discuss the captaincy. Mr Srinivasan said he will be informed of the future by the captain and the coach and that will be conveyed to us later on. It’s the top-down principle we have lived by to date. We’re not going to rock the boat. We have a process. We will stick to it. Also, in Dhoni we trust. Simple.”

Fair enough, but the last time CSK tried out another captain, the plan backfired to such a degree that Ravindra Jadeja stepped out of the way and Dhoni was forced to take up the role again. 

That’s the thing, whoever takes over as CSK captain not only will have the pressure of leading the side against the wolves, but they will also have to tackle the shadow of Dhoni. Any reasonable person will know that it won’t be possible to replicate what ‘Thala’ has done for the team, but it’s only human to compare. 

So, who next then? Jadeja again? Mostly not. 

Jadeja, at 35-years-old, has only so many years of cricket left in him despite world-class fitness. Moreover, Chennai will want to hand over the reins to someone young and without the baggage of a failed stint. 

Devon Conway, at 32, would have been a good fit given his general disposition, but he’s spending a chunk of the tournament recovering from an injury following a thumb surgery, so maybe he will be considered in the years to come. But a good, hard look at the squad throws up a couple of names which will no doubt tickle Dhoni’s fancy in the weeks to come. 

Ruturaj Gaikwad may not have spent enough time with the Indian side, but he has spent all his IPL career with Chennai - that ticks off the loyalty card - and has been a consistent force for them in the four seasons he has plied his wares. 

Then there is Rachin Ravindra. It sounds a bit left-field for Chennai to go for a foreign skipper, but that was their intention when they onboarded Ben Stokes. That didn’t work out for several reasons, injury being one of them, but Ravindra has the face for the new generation of Chennai loyalists. He’s 24-years-old, of Indian origin, has a stellar record for New Zealand, and has barely flinched in the face of a challenge. If all things go according to plan, Ravindra is going to be the future New Zealand skipper. 

Given Chennai’s love affair with Kiwis (here’s the list of them: Fleming, Jacob Oram, Scott Styris, Tim Southee, Brendon McCullum, Mitchell Santner, Scott Kuggeleijn, Adam Milne, Conway, Daryl Mitchell and Ravindra), it’s not otherworldly to think that they could well put their future in the hands of a young Kiwi.

It’s not dissimilar to when a team from Chennai made a man from Ranchi their captain. When you think about it, that’s quite possibly the wildest thing to have worked itself out in Indian cricket. 

“We knew it would work because it was Dhoni,” says Viswanathan when asked about the Dhoni ‘gamble’. “We know it (the future) will work because it is Dhoni.”