IPL 2020: MS Dhoni's aspirations of "command The Roost" are in the UAE

MS Dhoni may have signed away from international commitments, but he will continue to play a key role in the action in the Indian Premier League ( IPL). In the opening match Saturday against the defending Champions, MS Dhoni, who led the Chennai Super-Kings to three titles and to five runner-up finishes in the twelve IPL rounds. The game takes place more than a year after India played in the 2019 World Cup half-final defeat of the 39-year-old in New Zealand.

The wicket watchmaker eventually declared the end of last month's 16-year career in the world after much speculation. 

The flamboyant Dhoni is supposed to shine in the UAE, which is the provisional home of the IPL while India is battling a widespread coronavirus epidemic, without being pressured to do well to retain his position on the National Team. 

Saba Karim, another Indian wicketkeeper formerly, told AFP, "He is very fit, and I think he's doing very well. He stopped playing international cricket to minimize the strain on his body.

"An icon like MS Dhoni still needs global cricket to continue." 

With India winning the inaugural T20 world cup championship, Dhoni's captain was born in 2007 and the IPL, the world's richest and most famous cricket league, was launched one year later. 

"Dhoni had a major role in kicking off the IPL because of its violent side with the willow that he added a different dimension to the shorter format of the game," he said. 

"And behind the stumps with its cool exterior."

Formerly the best finisher in the world, Dhoni has played 190 IPL matches, scoring 4,432 runs, with 23 half-centuries included. 

Dhoni has made Chennai an outstanding leader with fast glovework one of the most loved franchises of IPL with nearly 200,000 people following Twitter fan squad. 

'Soul of Chennai' 

Chennai CEO Kasi Viswanathan said Dhoni continues to play the key to the team's plans and hopes are that he will continue playing until 2022. 

After arrival in the UAE last month the team was checked with two coronavirus teams. The team was examined.

Senior batsman Suresh Raina and veteran Harbhajan Singh subsequently decided not to play. 

"Damn, I swear if Dhoni is pulling out of the IPL, I don't have an IPL this year." 

Cricketer's Aakash Chopra commentator said that Dhoni is "the team's greatest strength and depends on him for all the franchise." 

"It is Chennai's soul Super Kings, though it's still here, CSK's heartbeats and it is going forward," Chopra said in his YouTube-show. "MS Dhoni, player and captain, has a big influence.

"Dhoni will once more rule the roost as a ruler. 

In 2015, when the IPL suspended Chennai and Dhoni for two years for match fixation, the team was plunged into controversy. 

But Dhoni and his squad – including several Australian Shane Watson players over the age of 35 and Imran Tahir from South Africa – came with a bang. 

Chennai, known by the media as 'Dad's Army,' was reappointed as one of the most reliable IPL teams in 2018. 

"Chennai's Dhoni," said Veteran Commentator Harsha Bhogle at Cricbuzz.com, "If Dhoni is well. Chennai's fine," Dhoni said.