The 16th season of the Indian Premier League is almost here, and fans are getting ready for another exciting season of the T20 extravaganza. In the upcoming season, there will be many star players, both active and retired, who will play their hardest for their teams. MS Dhoni’s name is being said again and again all over India before the IPL.
People say that the next season will be his last, since he will be playing in front of his home crowd in Chennai for the first time in a long time. Rohit Sharma, captain of the Mumbai Indians, said that Captain Cool, who has won the IPL four times, is healthy enough to keep playing.
“I’m not sure if this is his last season or not. I’ve heard this for the last two to three years. He is in good shape. He’s still at it. Sharma said at a pre-season press conference for Mumbai Indians that the player would keep playing.
MS Dhoni is the second most successful captain in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in terms of trophies won, as he has led Chennai to four titles. In an interview from 2021, the 41-year-old said that he would be happy to retire after playing his last game at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai in front of his home fans.
Since the next IPL will be the first one since 2019 to have a home-and-away format, there has been a lot of talk that the next season will be his last in the IPL.
During the pre-match press conference of Mumbai Indians, Rohit was also asked if he could rest for a few games in the IPL season to keep his workload in check ahead of the ODI World Cup, which will be held in India later this year.
The Indian captain sidestepped the question by telling the head coach of the Mumbai Indians, Mark Boucher, to answer it. Boucher said that he hoped the MI captain wouldn’t need to rest, but if he did, he would be happy to let him rest for one or two games.
“Rohit is the captain, so he should get a break. We hope that he gets in good shape and doesn’t want to stop working. But yeah, we’ll figure out how to deal with whatever comes up. If I can help him be the best captain and player he can be, that will be great. And if that means he needs to rest for one or two games, I have no problem with that,” Mark Boucher said.
With the ODI World Cup 2023 happening in India in October and November, there has been a lot of talk about how to make sure the players don’t get too tired. Since 2013, the Indian team hasn’t won an ICC trophy, and their workload has been blamed for a lot of that.
Rohit is now the captain of the Indian team, so it will be interesting to see if he rests for a few games in the next IPL and convinces other Indian team members to do the same.
