CSK CEO Kasi Viswanath reveals MS Dhoni’s reaction at Ben Stokes’ joining, breaks silence on captaincy for IPL 2023

In the build-up with the IPL 2023 mini auction, most had England all-rounder Sam Curran back in the Chennai Super Kings squad, predicting a gobsmacking amount.

While Curran did register a colossal figure in the auction in Kochi on Friday, becoming the most expensive player ever, CSK had failed to acquire him. But the four-time champions bagged Ben Stokes, for a massive amount of INR 16.25 crore. Moments after roping in the England Test captain, experts and fans were left wondering whether Stokes has been picked to replace MS Dhoni as the captain. CSK CEO Kasi Viswanath later revealed Dhoni’s reaction on Stokes joining the franchise and also broke his silence on the captaincy issue.

After failing to acquire Curran and then West Indies all-rounder Jason Holder, CSK battled against four other franchises in an intense bidding war to rope in Stokes. The England star became the joint third most expensive player at an IPL auction ever.

At the end of a frantic bidding day in Kochi, where 80 players were sold at a combined price of INR 167 crore, CSK CEO opened up on Dhoni’s reaction on reuniting with Stokes for the second time in IPL and on the leadership stance of the franchise.

“Very excited to get Stokes and we were lucky also because he came up at the end. We wanted an allrounder and MS was very happy that we got Stokes. Captaincy option is there but it’s a call MS will take with time. Kyle Jamieson was injured so maybe many others didn’t look at him. We had information from Fleming that he had recovered and was raring to go. CSK looks bright and I hope we do well this season. We follow the process always and that will help us do well,” he was quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

Dhoni had earlier stepped down from captaincy before the start of IPL 2022, making Ravindra Jadeja the new leader. But CSK were left languishing at the bottom end of the table with Jadeja struggling under pressure as well. Dhoni was hence forced to take over the captaincy role as well.