Follow UsFormer Indian cricketer-turned commentator Atul Wassan has backed 43-year-old MS Dhoni to return in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 in a familiar yellow jersey. While stating that Dhoni’s best days are gone, the 57-year-old insisted that ‘Dhoni is CSK, and CSK is Dhoni’.
"Dhoni is CSK, and CSK is Dhoni. CSK could have been doing good or not alongside Dhoni, but he is still recovering money for the franchise. Dhoni knows that his best days are gone, but he is still playing and facing the criticism,” Wassan said on the latest episode of the Bails and Banter Show on OTTPlay.
While Dhoni remained tight-lipped about his future, Wassan opined that the 43-year-old will turn up next year too.
“It shows how much attached he is to the franchise. Otherwise, why would someone who has achieved everything put himself in this situation? And I believe he would be up next year as well, despite not being at his 100 percent," said Wassan.
For the first time since IPL’s inception, CSK finished last on the points table in 2025, enduring their roughest-ever year. Wassan reckoned that you can’t blame Dhoni for their dismal run despite the terrible results, adding that captaincy is at times ‘overrated’.
"A captain is as good as the team he gets; if I give the Zimbabwe team to Clive Lloyd, he won't be good either. Dhoni's captaincy should be rated based on the team he got; when he had the team in the past, we all know what he did. In my opinion, captaincy is at times overrated."