Dhoni takes captaincy as Gaikwad ruled out of IPL
MS Dhoni with Ruturaj Gaikwad
Gaikwad’s injury was confirmed just before CSK’s home match against Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday, dealing a major blow to the team. CSK have had a rough start, losing four of their first five games, and currently sit ninth on the points table, just ahead of Sunrisers Hyderabad.
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The injury occurred during CSK’s match against Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati on March 30, when a delivery from fast bowler Tushar Deshpande struck Gaikwad’s unprotected elbow. Despite the injury, Gaikwad continued to bat and scored 63 runs.
He went on to play two more matches, scoring 5 against Delhi Capitals on April 5 in Chennai and 1 against Punjab Kings on April 8 in Mullanpur. Over five games, Gaikwad was CSK’s second-highest run-scorer, amassing 122 runs at a strike rate of 150.61.
"He [Gaikwad] got hit in Guwahati. He's been operating with an amount of pain. We got an X-ray, which was inconclusive, and we had an MRI, which revealed a fracture in his elbow, in the radial neck,” CSK head coach Stephen Fleming said in Chennai.
"So we're disappointed and feel for him. We appreciate the efforts that he's gone to in terms of trying to play, but unfortunately, he'd be out of the tournament from now. We have an uncapped player, MS Dhoni, who will take over as captain for the remainder of the IPL."
Dhoni, 43, had led CSK from 2008 until 2024, when he handed the captaincy to Gaikwad. He had also handed the captaincy to Ravindra Jadeja in 2022, but took back the leadership midway through the season after the team went through a bad run of results.
Under Dhoni's captaincy, CSK have won five IPL titles in 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023 and two Champions League trophies as well.
"He [Dhoni] had no hesitation to step up and help guide us out of this if we can," Fleming said. "So that was never a doubt. We'll look at replacements. We've got some good players in the squad that have been with us a while, so we'll look from within first. But yeah, there is an opportunity to see how we can enhance the squad probably moving forward into subsequent years."
