Former Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni has reportedly returned to his home Ranchi instead of traveling to Ahmedabad for the team’s IPL 2026 match against Gujarat Titans on Thursday.
Dhoni has not played any match for CSK ipl 2026 Due to an injury and a long recovery period. Now, rumors of a rift between Dhoni and the franchise for which he won five IPL trophies as captain are doing the rounds again.
MS Dhoni missed all CSK matches in IPL 2026
At the beginning of the season, ms dhoni He had to miss some matches due to calf strain. His comeback from that injury took longer than expected.
After Dhoni started wicketkeeping in the nets, there was speculation about his return to the field, but he did not take the field. In fact, he didn’t even take the field in most of the matches, only appearing during CSK’s defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Monday at Chepauk.
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MS Dhoni reportedly fit again, but suffers new thumb injury
New reports claimed that the calf strain that initially kept him out for only two weeks has healed, but Dhoni is yet to take the field.
In fact, he was fully fit and fine for CSK’s last two matches but reportedly sat out so that he would not upset the team combination he had created in the last 10 matches.
But, even though he was expected to play against SRH on Monday, he has reportedly suffered a fresh injury to his thumb. According to the report of ESPNcricinfo, this new injury is the reason for Dhoni’s return to Ranchi.
Rumors of rift between CSK and MS Dhoni
According to earlier reports, while Dhoni’s injuries were genuine, there was something else behind the scenes that led to his decision not to take the field.
Reportedly, there was a rift with Dhoni Chennai Super KingsAccording to a Cricblogger report, the senior management over the last two years. Dhoni stepped down from the captaincy of the franchise before IPL 2024 and named Ruturaj Gaikwad as his successor.
Since then, as part of its effort to phase out senior players and build a new team for the future, the CSK management has reportedly not sought Dhoni’s opinion in its decision-making. Dhoni was reportedly not fully aware of CSK’s decision to trade Ravindra Jadeja to Rajasthan Royals in exchange for Sanju Samson.
Due to this difference of opinion, relations between MS Dhoni and CSK have apparently deteriorated. In fact, it has been alleged that after IPL 2026, Dhoni will not be seen anywhere near CSK.
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csk qualification scenario
The latest report, as reported by ESPN Cricinfo, also says that Dhoni will return to the CSK camp if the team reaches the playoffs.
Apart from winning their last league stage game against GT on Thursday, CSK will have to hope for other results as well. In fact, a very specific set of results is required if CSK are to make the last four.
If CSK beats GT on Thursday, the following sequence of results will be required to make the last four:
LSG beat PBKS on Saturday, MI beat RR in the day game on Sunday and DC beat KKR in the night game on Sunday. In this situation, both PBKS and KKR will be out after finishing on 13 points, while there will be a three-way tie between CSK, RR and DC on 14 points.
In this situation, net run rate will be taken into account, but CSK no longer holds the lead in that category. Even if CSK beats GT, even one of the other three results going in the opposite direction will eliminate them.
