CHENNAI: On Thursday morning, the masses in the city and elsewhere in the state geared up to pay their obeisance to 'thala' to watch the Ajith Kumar starrer 'Good Bad Ugly', in the theatres.
Even before the harsh summer sun had died on Thursday evening, the masses were trying to source tickets to watch their other 'thala'. It didn't matter that Chennai Super Kings are officially in a crisis having lost four games on the spin. The atmosphere inside the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Friday night, for the visit of the holders, Kolkata Knight Riders, will be like inside a mosh pit because of the return of MS Dhoni in a captaincy role for the first time since the IPL final in 2023.
After that manic, against the odds, post midnight win in Ahmedabad, Dhoni stepped aside as the franchise finally put their much choreographed succession plan into action. After having Ruturaj Gaikwad shadow Dhoni, the management had handed over the reins to the opener.
After a 'jury is out' kind of leadership in the first year, the batter had faced some flak, thanks to Chennai's less than impressive start in 2025. But Gaikwad, after sustaining that hit to the elbow in Guwahati, has been ruled out because of a fracture.
"He [Gaikwad] got hit in Guwahati," coach Stephen Fleming said at the pre-match press conference. "He's been operating with an amount of pain. We got an X-ray, which was inconclusive, and we had an MRI, which revealed a fracture in his elbow, in the radial neck.
"We're disappointed and feel for him (Gaikwad). We appreciate the efforts that he's gone to in terms of trying to play, but unfortunately, he'd be out of the tournament from now. We have an uncapped player, MS Dhoni, who will take over as captain for the remainder of the IPL."
This is a familiar place for the five-time champions. Turning to Dhoni for captaincy. The last time it happened mid-tournament was when their then permanent captain, Ravindra Jadeja, was replaced in 2022. In all, this is the third time that Dhoni has been asked to lead the side (fourth if you count 2018 after the side had come back post the two-year ban).
After Gaikwad's X-ray revealed a break, the management checked with the 43-year-old if he was receptive to the idea. "He (Dhoni) had no hesitation to step up and help guide us out of this if we can," Fleming said. "So that was never a doubt. We'll look at replacements. We've got some good players in the squad that have been with us a while, so we'll look from within first. But yeah, there is an opportunity to see how we can enhance the squad, probably moving forward into subsequent years."
This again shows various gaps in the way they constructed their squad over the years. In the absence of a clear leader, either domestic or overseas, they have no choice but to go back to somebody whose own fitness has come under scrutiny in 2025. But because they don't have any other tried and tested leader in the squad, they have left themselves with no choice but to go back.
If you are talking of overseas players, there are doubts over both Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway in terms of their place in the side in the long-term. Matheesha Pathirana and Noor Ahmad have good primary skill sets but their cricketing journeys thus far make them no go's.
The other way the auction didn't go their way is the amount of money they ended up spending on batters. Excluding Gaikwad and Shivam Dube, both of whom they retained, they didn't spend too much. They shortchanged their batting line-up to pour extra resources into their bowlers but it left them short.
Out of the `55 cr purse they had, they allocated roughly `21.55 cr to pick up either pure batters or all-rounders who have a reputation of being a hitter in the lower middle-order. The rest went towards strengthening the bowling. This may have been justifiable if their retentions were batting skewed. Even there, they had spent less than half on pure batters (`31 cr out of `65 cr).
On Thursday evening, just as the floodlights were replacing natural light, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, their reserve opener and keeper, started range hitting against an assortment of bowlers. Most of his hits peppered the stands next to the media box. That's the kind of reserve strength the hosts do not have.
With Chennai possibly needing to win seven of the remaining nine games to make the playoffs, what will this captaincy call be?
Good? Bad? Ugly?