The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season has officially gone on for more than a month, but there’s still no clarity on when MS Dhoni will return to the field for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). At first, the wicketkeeper-batter was slated to miss the first two weeks of the tournament, but the wait to see Thala back in the playing XI continues to get longer. On the eve of the CSK games, the 44-year-old has been training with the rest of the squad, but on match day, the former India captain has chosen not to travel with the team to the stadium.
On Friday, ahead of the match against the Mumbai Indians at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, CSK batting coach Michael Hussey revealed that Dhoni doesn’t want to distract the team and hence has opted to stay away.
The former Australian batter said that if Dhoni travels to the stadium and doesn’t play, the cameras would be on him all the time, and this could potentially distract the rest of the team; hence, for the betterment of the team, the World Cup-winner has consciously decided not to travel with the team.
“He’s such a team-oriented guy. He always wants what’s best for the team, and he was worried that if he came, there’d be a bit too much of a distraction. Obviously, the cameras would be on him a lot. The crowd would be cheering for him and things like that,” Hussey told reporters in the pre-match press conference ahead of the game against the Mumbai Indians.
“And he really wanted the team to just be able to go about their job, do our thing. Whether that’s right or wrong isn’t my decision to sort out. But that’s the thinking behind Dhoni not wanting to come to the matches,” he added.
‘Watching very closely’
However, Hussey said that Dhoni has been watching the games very closely, but for the betterment of the squad, he continues to stay away from a hotel on game days.
“Obviously, he’s been watching very closely back home. I personally love having him around the dressing room. He offers so much wisdom. He offers so much confidence to the rest of the guys. So he’s obviously at training all the time and always has a bubbly personality around training and offers a lot of his experience to the players there,” said Hussey.
“But it was just a case he didn’t want to see himself as a distraction to the rest of the team, and that’s why he decided on game day just to sort of stay away,” he added.
When asked about an update on whether Dhoni will play against the Capitals, Hussey said that the wicketkeeper-batter is progressing really well after sustaining a calf strain and will return to the field “very soon.”
“I don’t know if it’s tomorrow or maybe the next match after that, but he’s progressing really well. I know he’s been upping his running speeds, and that was probably the sticking point,” said Hussey.
“I think we’re very confident from a skill perspective with his batting and his wicketkeeping. But it was just making sure that he could maintain good running power particularly towards the back end of an innings where he’s going to have to scamper those ones and twos. So as soon as he’s got the confidence in his calf then I’m sure he’ll give it the tick to ready to go. And so we’re kind of guided by him at the moment. But we’re waiting. I think all of Chennai’s waiting. All the fans are waiting and hoping,” he added.