Veteran Chennai Super Kings (CSK) cricketer MS Dhoni will play in Indian Premier League’s (IPL) 2026 season. CSK CEO confirmed the development on Sunday, as per NDTV. “Dhoni will play,” Kasi Viswanathan was quoted as saying by NDTV.
The 44-year-old has enjoyed a storied IPL career with the Yellow Brigade, leading them to five titles. These five IPL titles came in 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023 seasons.
MS Dhoni’s CSK career
Dhoni has played for CSK in every season, barring 2016 and 2017, when the franchise was banned for their involvement in the IPL 2013 spot-fixing scandal. Dhoni had played IPL 2016 and 2017 for the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant.
Since the inaugural IPL season in 2008, the wicketkeeper-batsman has played 272 matches for Chennai Super Kings, and has scored 5314 runs at an average of 38.23. His highest score is an unbeaten 84 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in IPL 2019.
Dhoni has led the franchise in 244 of these matches, winning 145 matches and losing 96. He has a win percentage of 59.42.
The five-time champions had named Ravindra Jadeja as their skipper ahead of IPL 2022. However, Dhoni retook captaincy midway through the season after CSK won just two matches out of their first eight matches that season. CSK missed out on the playoffs after finishing in ninth place.
Ahead of IPL 2024, CSK decided to hand the captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad. CSK, however, narrowly missed out on the IPL playoffs in 2024 after finishing fifth with 14 points.
Gaikwad continued to lead the side in IPL 2025, but an injury forced him to withdraw midway through the season. Dhoni then took over CSK captaincy again, but failed to take them to the playoffs. CSK finished IPL 2025 in last place with eight points from 14 matches.
Dhoni was one of the several CSK stars who were retained for the IPL 2026 season.
The Jharkhand cricketer was retained for ₹4 crore and will continue to be classified as an uncapped player, under the IPL’s rules.
Other CSK players who were retained for IPL 2026 included captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis and Noor Ahmad, whereas Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran were traded to Rajasthan Royals (RR).
In return, Sanju Samson was traded from Rajasthan Royals to Chennai Super Kings, with the Kerala cricketer thus ending his prolonged stay with the inaugural champions.
