Former Indian cricket team batter S Badrinath slammed Chennai Super Kings for the uncertainty over MS Dhoni’s participation in IPL 2026. Dhoni has not played a single game this year after suffering from a calf strain and in the recent past, he also suffered a thumb injury.
However, there has been constant speculation regarding his fitness but the veteran cricketer did not even come to the ground for most of their matches. Dhoni was present for CSK’s last home game against Sunrisers Hyderabad but he only came to the field for interacting with the players and doing a small lap around the ground.
“There has consistently been questions over whether he’ll play or not before every game. The whole Dhoni situation hasn’t been handled well. Nobody knows the reason. Is it just to create interest for the match or is it a business decision? Is this also part of the process?”
He even questioned whether it was Dhoni’s choice to pick Ruturaj Gaikwad as his successor before suggesting that Ravindra Jadeja would have the veteran player’s pick.
“Nobody knows whether it’s true that MS Dhoni wanted Ruturaj Gaikwad to become the captain. This decision cannot come on Dhoni in any way. It had to be the management’s decision. Dhoni could have only given a suggestion. So the management must only take responsibility for this. Knowing Dhoni, if at all he had any say in this, he would have suggested Ravindra Jadeja only as the next captain,” Badrinath said.
It has not been a good season for CSK in 2026 with the team having a slim chance at qualifying for the Playoffs. Badrinath was extremely critical of CSK’s ‘process’ under Gaikwad’s captaincy and pointed out that their player signings were quite disappointing.
“Even players like Brevis, Mhatre, and Urvil Patel were replacement players. CSK just got lucky with them. It’s not like they did some planning or process to land them. Even a good acquisition like Sanju Samson came through trade, where they had to give up Jadeja and Sam Curran. So there is no decision that they’ve made, which has worked in isolation,” he concluded.