“No one is ever going to forget,” Matthew Hayden on MS Dhoni’s last appearance at the Chepauk Stadium
Matthew Hayden believes IPL 2023 is going to be "celebrated like no other" by the CSK fans. He believes Dhoni continued to play in IPL to say goodbye to his fans at Chepauk stadium.
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MS Dhoni with Matthew Hayden
The much-awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) presumably will see MS Dhoni donning the yellow jersey for the last time. It’s going to be too much to handle for Dhoni’s die-hard fans at the Chepauk Stadium in Chennai.
The 41-year-old led the side since the inception of IPL in 2008 to four trophies and the memories of those matches have been etched in the minds of the fans. For the fans, watching him play for the last time certainly going to be an emotional one, for he just didn’t lead the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to those four titles but captained India to all the major ICC trophies (T20 World Cup in 2007, ODI World Cup in 2011, and the Champions Trophy in 2013).
That is why former Australia opener Matthew Hayden believes IPL 2023 is going to be “celebrated like no other” by the CSK fans. Hayden, speaking to Star Sports, said that Dhoni has a way of revitalizing, revamping, and making it a completely different look and feel to the side. Hayden was talking about the two-year ban CSK faced but right after it, they ended up clinching their third trophy.
He believes that this year, “it’s going to be a year celebrated like no other. It’s the finish I believe of the legacy of MS Dhoni and he will want to go out in style with fans, who’d want him to go out in style as well.”
Matthew Hayden believes MS Dhoni wanted to play IPL 2023 just to say goodbye to Chepauk fans
The Yellow Army is going to swarm up in the stadium to watch their Captain Cool play. “The venue is a fortress. And they are going to have MS Dhoni as their captain, arguably for the last time and that’s going to be one of those moments that no one is ever going to forget,” Hayden said.
Hayden believes Dhoni continued to play in IPL to say goodbye to his fans at Chepauk stadium and “they are going to turn up like you just couldn’t imagine.” Dhoni stepped down from captaincy two days before the start of IPL 2022 after which Ravindra Jadeja shouldered the captaincy responsibilities. But CSK had a horrible season, and subsequently, Jadeja relinquished captaincy after the first half with Dhoni taking the role again.
Dhoni retired from international cricket on August 15, 2020. Meanwhile, IPL will kick start on March 31 with a match between CSK and defending champions Gujarat Titans led by Hardik Pandya. The 16th edition will see the return of home and away format.
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Gouri Das
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