Former Indian cricketer Mohammed Kaif recently took to social media to share his thoughts on whether this season might actually be MS Dhoni’s last in the Indian Premier League. This came after a rough outing for the Chennai Super Kings against the Kolkata Knight Riders at Chepauk Stadium on Friday night.
On his official handle on X (you might know it as Twitter), Kaif expressed his frustrations over the team’s poor batting performance. He wrote, Is this Dhoni’s last season? Given how things are going for CSK, is it time for some changes? And why on earth would you prepare a slow pitch at home when you’ve got opponents with spinners like Narine and Varun?
Is this Dhoni's last season? The way CSK's season is going, is the time right for a change? Last question: Why give a slow pitch at home when the rivals have spinners like Naraine and Varun?
— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) April 11, 2025
Meanwhile, the Chennai crowd was loud and proud in support of their legend, Dhoni, who stepped in as captain after Ruturaj Gaikwad was ruled out of the match. Unfortunately, everything started to go downhill right after the toss. CSK lost it and wanted to bat first, but they didn’t play to their strengths, struggling mightily against the disciplined bowling from KKR.
Shivam Dube tried to salvage the situation with a not-out 31 off 29 balls, a feat that helped CSK avoid what would have been their lowest-ever total in IPL history with just 79 runs. Devon Conway was initially looking good, hitting a couple of boundaries off pacer Vaibhav Arora. However, his innings was short-lived as he tried to reverse-sweep Moeen Ali and ended up getting trapped LBW for just 12 runs in a wicket-maiden over.
The troubles didn’t stop there for CSK. Rachin Ravindra accidentally skied a slog off Harshit Rana and was caught at cover, leading to another early exit for the team. They almost lost another wicket when Vijay Shankar was dropped by Moeen at mid-off without scoring. After that, Shankar managed to get some runs, pulling and lifting boundaries off Chakaravarthy, as well as hitting a six over mid-wicket off Moeen. Shankar had some luck on his side, especially after Venkatesh Iyer dropped him at mid-wicket when he was on just 20 runs.
Despite some of the lucky breaks, CSK was still facing a tough time. Shankar’s stay at the crease was finally cut short when he mis-timed a sweep shot off Chakaravarthy and got caught at deep backward square leg for 29 runs. The struggling Rahul Tripathi didn’t last long either, getting bowled for just 16 runs after playing all around an off-break from Moeen.
Watching all this unfold from the other end, Dube eventually broke the lengthy boundary drought for CSK with a strong shot down the ground for four runs. Later, he managed to get another boundary with a top edge off Arora. However, during a tight run for the second, Dube pulled a muscle in his left leg. Despite the pain, he still found a way to connect with the ball and sent a half-volley to long-off on the final ball of the innings, helping CSK just scrape past 100 runs. It was a tough day for the super kings, and fans are left wondering what the future holds for them and their beloved captain.
