Former Indian left-arm seamer and 2011 Cricket World Cup winner under MS Dhoni’s captaincy, Zaheer Khan expects his ex-captain to play IPL for a bit more long. Dhoni will be donning the Yellow jersey of Chennai Super Kings as the skipper to defend the IPL title. They won their 5th title last year by beating Gujarat at the World’s largest stadium.
Zaheer Khan while speaking in a recent interview, backed MS Dhoni to continue his IPL career longer than any of us expect him to do. Zaheer claimed that Dhoni will be seen in the Yellow jersey “for a long time” and that he should enjoy franchise cricket without the added pressure of international cricket.
Zaheen Khan reveals MS Dhoni has gained full fitness
The former left-arm seamer also disclosed that he met MS Dhoni very recently. He said that the CSK captain is looking extremely fit and fine to lead his side towards a record 6th IPL title. Last year, Dhoni was struggling with a knee injury but he played the whole season as if nothing had happened.
After the IPL final, the Ranchi-born revealed that he will be undergoing knee surgery and promised that he will be back for the 2024 edition. In that statement, MS Dhoni was specific about not disappointing the fans who turned up in large numbers to see him in the 2023 edition.
And now that the 2024 edition is touted to be his last, Zaheer Khan feels he can continue for a long time.
“I feel you will see him on the field for a long time to come. You enjoy the game when you go away from the pressures of international cricket. The only challenge is how you prepare in the middle phase from IPL to IPL when you are away from cricket.” – Zaheer Khan said in a recent interview.
“However, if you talk only about cricket and the way he is taking the team along, you see an inspiration walking on the ground, and you will want this journey to continue for many years to come. I met him recently. He was looking very fit and mentally fresh. He was looking forward to this season.” – Zaheer concluded.
About the CSK team combination, Zaheer Khan feels that the reigning champions are looking like a well-settled squad whose approach and team combination will not change.
“They have an extremely settled squad. Chennai’s approach has been that you don’t see too many changes there. Shardul Thakur has come back now, who was a part of the Chennai Super Kings earlier as well. So he would know the team culture.” – Zaheer Khan concluded.
Chennai Super Kings squad for IPL 2024
MS Dhoni (c), Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar, Devon Conway, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Simarjeet Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana, Rachin Ravindra, Shardul Thakur, Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi, Mustafizur Rahman, Avanish Rao Aravelly
The reigning champions will begin their 2024 campaign against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL opener on March 22nd at Chepauk.
