"He can play at least 2-3 years": Suresh Raina on MS Dhoni's future at IPL

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, the former India middle-order batter Suresh Raina opined that Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper MS Dhoni can play the cash-rich Indian T20 competition for at least two to three years.

Dhoni won his fifth trophy in the IPL 2022 as the CSK skipper and equalled the record of Rohit Sharma who earlier did it for the Mumbai Indians in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and in 2020 respectively.

The left-hander asserted that this year would be more important for the Chennai-based franchise than Dhoni as the 42-year-old will likely elect a new leader for the five-time champions in the 2024 edition.

"This year is probably more important for CSK than MS Dhoni because we will see who he is going to select as his deputy and probably say, 'You handle this now. I've been looking after the team since 2008'. He is 42 years old now. I would like to see him play for five more years or at least 2-3 years," Raina said on Jio Cinema.

The southpaw is fifth on the list of highest run-getters in the history of IPL with 5528 runs in the 205 matches he has played during his career. He has scored runs at an average of 32.51 and at a strike rate of 136.73 with the best score of 100*.

The 17th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will start on March 22, with MS Dhoni-led side who are defending champions and set to clash with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in a South Indian derby at their home arena - MA Chidambaram Stadium.

CSK squad for IPL 2024: MS Dhoni (c), Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Mukesh Choudhary, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Simarjeet Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana, Rachin Ravindra, Shardul Thakur, Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi, Mustafizur Rahman, Avanish Rao Aravelly.