"Considering how he batted last season.." Suresh Raina wishes for MS Dhoni to play in IPL 2025

MS Dhoni relinquished CSK’s captaincy and handed it to Ruturaj Gaikwad ahead of IPL 2024.

There remains uncertainty over MS Dhoni’s future in the Indian Premier League (IPL), especially with a mega-auction coming up.

Dhoni turned 43 in July this year. The biggest hint that Dhoni is nearing the absolute end of his IPL career came when he handed over the Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) captaincy to opener Ruturaj Gaikwad ahead of the IPL 2024 season despite having led CSK to their fifth title last year.

Under Gaikwad, CSK failed to qualify for the playoffs after losing to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in their last league match.

Dhoni, though, had a bumper season with the bat. He batted mostly as a finisher in the last few overs of the innings and blasted 161 runs at a tremendous strike rate of 220, but failed to finish off the chase against RCB.

I want MS Dhoni to play in IPL 2025: Suresh Raina

Dhoni’s former India and CSK teammate Suresh Raina strongly wishes for the former CSK skipper to play one more season.

Raina cited two reasons for that. He alluded to Dhoni’s sensational IPL 2024 season as a batsman and also to the fact that Gaikwad is still inexperienced in his captaincy career.

“I want MS Dhoni to play in IPL 2025, considering how he batted last year (season). I feel Ruturaj Gaikwad needs one more year, the way he captained and a lot of things were said after the loss to RCB (Royal Challengers Bengaluru). However, Ruturaj has done a great job,” Raina told SportsTak.

A few weeks ago, Dhoni attended an event in Hyderabad, where he opened up on his IPL future. He said he would wait for the BCCI to finalize the retention policy and then would make his decision on whether to play next year or not.

“So, once the rules and regulations get formalised, I will take a call, but needs to be in the best interest of the team,” Dhoni said.

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