3 Players who can replace MS Dhoni as CSK Captain in IPL 2025

MS Dhoni is the most influential captain in the history of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He was the most expensive player bought in the IPL 2008 auction and since then, he has been with the CSK franchise, barring the two seasons with Rising Pune Supergiants. He has always been the captain of the franchise as well.

In IPL 2022, CSK experimented with Dhoni stepping down as captain and Ravindra Jadeja taking over. But Jadeja’s poor captaincy and the responsibility affecting his cricket led to Dhoni taking mid-season. He then played through with a knee injury in the IPL 2023, leading CSK to a record-equaling fifth IPL title.

But as all CSK fans know, MS Dhoni is 42 years old and will not be playing in the IPL forever. He has acknowledged how hard it was for him to train to play in 2 months of IPL and it is expected that the IPL 2024 will be his swansong. With that comes the question of who will captain the CSK side after MS Dhoni and in this article, we explore 3 such options as the next CSK skipper.

Here are three players who can replace MS Dhoni as CSK Captain in next IPL season:

3. Ravindra Jadeja

Ravindra Jadeja has been part of the CSK family since 2011. He has been a member of the IPL 2011, 2018, 2021, and 2023 winning Chennai teams. While Suresh Raina was Dhoni’s deputy till IPL 2019, Jadeja took over that open slot after Raina’s exit from the IPL. Finally in the IPL 2022, CSK handed him the reins of the franchise to see whether he could bear the pressure of captaining the side and performing his all-rounder duties.

However, Jadeja failed to do both as he was found lacking in ideas as captain and he failed to inspire the other players as well. He also couldn’t perform with the bat and the ball, and as a result, CSK ended up near the bottom of the points table. Since then, Jadeja has returned to his old form as a player and was even India's vice-captain in certain bilateral series. Whether CSK bets on Jadeja once more, remains to be seen, but he is certainly one of the options for captaincy.