Dhoni, the most successful Indian captain is going to captain Chennai Super Kings yet again in IPL 2024. With recent news coming out which rules out New zealand batter Devon Convay from IPL 2024, Chennai Super Kings has some thinking to do as who will open along side Ruturaj Gaikward.
While fans are speculating all sort of things, one of it that it could be Ajinkya Rahane who can be seen in the new role this time as opener.
Rahane had a superb season last year with 326 runs at an average of 32 and highest score of 71 not out.
With such impeccable record and Rahane having considerable experience to open the innings for India at international stage and also at IPL level for different franchise, Rahane could be the guy who will be taking the position of Devon Convoy for the opening slot.
But a recent post of Dhoni had set CSK and Dhoni fans guessing.
Dhoni who recently posted on facebook that he might play in CSK in new role.
There is a sensation which Dhoni has created among fans with his post on what could be the new role?
The most obvious guess is that instead of Rahane, will Dhoni open for CSK this time, considering this might be his last season in IPL.
Well it will be fantastic for fans to see their most lovable player from the CSK and India to open the innings, but has Dhoni opened for India at international level ever?
Well, yes he did it 2 times, lets look at both the matches when Dhoni played as an opener in international cricket.
1)Against Srilanka, 2005, India Oil Cup,Dambulla :- Under the captainship of Rahul Dravid, Dhoni for the first time was given an opportunity to show his hard hitting form ball 1. He opened the batting with Rahul Dravid.
Dhoni didn’t have a good outing opening the innings for the very first time in Indian colors as he made only 2 runs of 7 balls and India also went on to loose the match on a tricky spin match by 3 wickets.
Check the scorecard here:-
2)Against England, 2006, Jamshedpur :- Dhoni once again got the chance to improve his numbers as opening batsman in international cricket and this time he nearly missed out on the century.
Dhoni was the highest scorer for India and missed out a well deserved century as he made 96 runs in India’s total of 223 runs. He had a good partnership with the former India Women Team Head Coach off spinner Romesh Powar who scored a half century and also chipped in with two wickets.
Check the scorecard here:-
These were the only times Dhoni got the opportunity to bat at opening slot for India. His average as opening batter is 49, just slightly below than his career batting average of 50, but if CSK is indeed planning on using Dhoni at the top of the order than we might witness a completely different hard hitting Dhoni from the ball 1 in his retro long hair style which is fuming over the social media, and can provide his team with much needed ignition start for the coming batsman.
