Ruturaj Gaikwad has been unveiled as the new captain of Chennai Super Kings ahead of the opening game of IPL 2024, where defending champions CSK take on the visiting Royal Challengers Bengaluru side at home at the Chepauk. This brings to an end M S Dhoni’s long stint as captain of CSK – from the first season back in 2008 – though he had stepped away from the position in 2022 too, when Ravindra Jadeja was made captain. But Jadeja stepped down after a few matches and Dhoni took back the reins, continuing in 2023 when they won the title for the sixth time and drew level at the top with Mumbai Indians.

That triumph was widely expected to be Dhoni’s IPL farewell – he had retired from international cricket following the 2019 World Cup – but he vowed to return for at least one more season if his body allowed it. Troubled by a knee issue right through the 2023 season, Dhoni underwent surgery days after the final. At 42, he joined CSK’s pre-season camp in Chennai earlier this month.

In all, Dhoni captained CSK in 235 of their 249 games in all competitions, leading them to two titles in the defunct Champions League T20 to go with the six IPL titles. He also captained Rising Pune Supergiant for 14 games during CSK’s two-year ban from the IPL in 2016 and 2017. In all, he led teams in 226 IPL games, which puts him far ahead of Rohit Sharma (158) on the captaincy leaderboard.

The size of the shoes Gaikwad steps into can be gauged by Dhoni’s win-loss ratio of 1.461 in the IPL, a figure bettered only by Hardik Pandya (2.444) and Steven Smith (1.470) among captains who have led teams in 20 or more matches.

The 27-year-old Gaikwad has been tipped to take over from Dhoni ever since he finished the 2021 IPL season – his second in the competition – with a chart topping 635 runs.  The Maharashtra batter has since grown into one of CSK’s most consistent performers, and his run-scoring feats in the IPL have earned him a place on the immediate periphery of India’s first-choice white-ball squads. He has played 6 ODIs and 19 T20Is so far.

With 1797 runs from 52 matches at an average of 39.06 and a strike rate of 135.52, Gaikwad is currently CSK’s seventh-highest run-getter.

(Cricinfo)