Legendary Australia opener Matthew Hayden feels that it’s going to be an amazing moment when Mahendra Singh Dhoni returns to Chepauk Stadium in the upcoming season of Indian Premier League. The home-away is all set to return with IPL 2023 as Chennai will play their first match at Chepauk against Lucknow Super Giants on April 3. The upcoming season of IPL might be the last for 41-year-old Dhoni and the excitement is sky-high among Chennai Super Kings fans.
Dhoni has already started training as the BCCI also announced the schedule for the upcoming season where CSK will clash against defending champions Gujarat Titans in the opening clash.
Chennai Super Kings Full Schedule IPL 2023: CSK Face Defending Champions Gujarat Titans in Opener
Hayden, who has played alongside Dhoni in the past at CSK, said that the upcoming season will be his last and the skipper’s performance will be key for the franchise.
“It will be an amazing moment. I think last year, we were all under the impression that will MSD come back again. At the close of the IPL season, he made that huge comment to say that he will be back. Now, what that means for all that Yellow Army is that Chennai suddenly galvanized a tad around the superior leader, who has done it for so long. This will, most certainly, I think, be the close of his IPL career. So, those few games at the start are not only going to be key for the fans, his performance is going to be key for CSK this season,” Hayden said on Star Sports.
Meanwhile, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar suggested that Dhoni’s impact with the bat is not going to be high but his leadership will be key for CSK.
“Look, having watched T20 cricket over the years, especially with the IPL and the kind of pressures that teams feel, I believe that you can have one player in your team on pure leadership. MS Dhoni doesn’t play regularly, so his impact with the bat is not going to be as much as it was in the prime, but somebody like MS Dhoni, with his leadership experience, you can have him in the team, to make a difference with his leadership. And this is a guy who’s had a team that was called the ‘Old Men Playing IPL Together’ and they won that particular season,” he said.
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