While it had only been reported that the IPL will return to the home and away from next year from sources in the BCCI – not it is none other than MS Dhoni who has confirmed this news as the Chennai Super Kings captain announced that he and CSK will return to their home stadium, M. A. Chidambaram a.k.a Chepauk.
At the end of last season, MS Dhoni had already hinted that he will play and lead the franchise next year as well, saying that he would want to play in front of the Chennai crowd for one more season. And now, in an event in association with CSK, Dhoni confirmed his and his side’s return to Chepauk in IPL 2023.
The franchise’s official Twitter handle shared a picture of MS Dhoni from the event in which he can be seen surrounded by fans and captioned the image, “We’ll come back to Chepauk next year”- Anbuden Thala #WhistlePodu #Yellove.”
“We’ll come back to Chepauk next year”
– Anbuden Thala 🦁💛#WhistlePodu #Yellove 💛 pic.twitter.com/7Xiah6ZEIk
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) October 9, 2022
The ‘WhistlePodu Army ® – CSK Fan Club’ Twitter handle posted the video of Dhoni from the event. In the video as soon as Dhoni confirms his return to Chepauk, there is a huge cheer and applause from the fans at the event.
You can watch the video here:
We will come back to Chepauk – MS Dhoni 🥳💛#MSDhoni #WhistlePodu #CSK
🎥 Lu Fee pic.twitter.com/9bZNqQEcFu— WhistlePodu Army ® – CSK Fan Club (@CSKFansOfficial) October 9, 2022
The last time the IPL was played in the home and away format was in 2019 after which covid induced pandemic forced the BCCI to host the IPL 2020 entirely in the UAE. The first half of IPL 2021 was hosted in India, but teams didn’t play at their home grounds before the second half was moved to the UAE. The IPL 2022 was entirely played in India, but once again all the teams barring Mumbai Indians didn’t get to play at their home grounds.
CSK finished 9th in the points table with only 4 wins, above Mumbai Indians only on net run rate. They had a controversial season which involved changing of captaincy armband from Ravindra Jadeja back to MS Dhoni after CSK’s poor start to the season under Jadeja’s captaincy. The all-rounder is reportedly upset with the franchise.
