MS Dhoni’s future at Chennai Super Kings is a matter of intense speculation and the great AB de Villiers reckons that the World Cup-winning captain must lead his side, if at all he decides to play another IPL season. CSK have won five titles under Dhoni’s leadership and the two share a bond like no other. Looking at the future, Dhoni had handed over the captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad a day before the IPL 2024 opener. Gaikwad did not do a bad job as a captain and a batter but CSK could not make the IPL play-offs.

Dhoni’s future in the IPL remains a subject of debate as he has left everyone guessing. He retired from international cricket in 2020.

With due respect to Gaikwad, de Villiers had called the captaincy change a mistake at the start of the season and on Wednesday he stood by his remarks.

“I will only give you an honest answer if you’re going to report it in the right way yes so I wouldn’t say I called it a mistake. What I meant by that was with MS Dhoni around, playing against MS for so many years, that is the most intimidating sight to have him as an opposing captain,” said de Villiers in a select media interaction arranged by Jio Cinema.

“They took away quite a bit of intimidation factor from CSK with not having him as captain. It’s got nothing to do with Gaikwad’s captaincy. I actually think he’s got a very bright future and he captained extremely well.

“But just having MS around, I always felt like it’s going to be a waste not having him as captain. They tried it before. It didn’t work (when Jadeja was replaced mid season). And unfortunately this year, yes, you’ve got to look at the results.

“The majority of the games they played well, but at the end of the day they didn’t qualify for the knockouts. It’s definitely not because of Gaikwad’s captaincy. I do however ever feel that when MS is around he should be captain,” added the South African. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)