The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday turned yellow as a sea of MS Dhoni fans filled up the venue to watch the legendary Chennai Super Kings captain in action in the IPL 2023 final against their home team Gujarat Titans.
Unfortunately, not even match toss was possible due to relentless rains. The contest has been pushed into the reserved day i.e. Monday.
Fans turning up in huge numbers to show their support for Dhoni is in part to the possibility that this could be the last season that the wicketkeeper-batter will be involved with the league as a player. It’s been speculated that the 41-year-old will retire following IPL 2023.
However, Dhoni has deferred the decision citing ‘8-9 months’ to take a final call on whether he wants to retire or continue playing.
The legendary Kapil Dev though thinks that people should be thankful that Dhoni kept entertaining for 15 years but he cannot be expected to continue playing for the entirety of his life.
“He’s (Dhoni) been playing for 15 years,” Kapil said on ABP News. “What else do we want from him? Should he continue playing for the rest of his life? It won’t happen. We should be thankful that a player (of such caliber) came who continued playing for 15 years. He may not play tomorrow or next season but Dhoni has played some brilliant cricket towards the end.”
“He may not have scored heavily but has kept hold of the team. This show the importance of a captain. Maybe, in other games captain isn’t that important but in cricket it’s significant and that’s what Dhoni has shown,” Kapil added.
Dhoni has been playing with an injured knee throughout the season, often seen limping which has limited his mobility on the field.
Kapil praised the two-time world cup winning captain for being able to keep himself match fit despite not playing regularly.
“Hats off to him. If you play cricket throughout the year, it gets easier (to maintain fitness). If a player is just playing in IPL, then it’s quite difficult. He should he praised for that,” Kapil, the first captain to lead India to a world cup title win, said.
Citing some of the biggest names in the world of India cricket who have retired, Kapil said it’s inevitable that Dhoni will follow into their footsteps and instead of being sad at the prospect, we should be celebrating him for having a successful career.
“Us fans know what Dhoni has done for cricket is incomparable. But Sachin (Tendulkar), (Sunil) Gavaskar, (Anil) Kumble, Yuvraj (Singh), (Virender) Sehwag all left. (Virat) Kohli will leave one day. When a player of such stature leaves, we should be celebrating it, not feeling sad. As a fan, I wouldn’t want Dhoni to leave but as a cricketer, it cannot get better,” he said.
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