The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) kicked off their 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign against the Rajasthan Royals, marking the first occasion that the five-time champions will feature without either of their two legends – MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina. CSK’s IPL 2026 is the mark of a new era, with the onus lying on youngsters to take the legacy forward. The team led by Ruturaj Gaikwad, featuring wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson as another key player, will showcase numerous thrilling, youthful, dynamic talents on the field.
Nonetheless, the team will be without Raina, who rested his boots from all forms of cricket in 2022. Notably, Dhoni has been ruled out of the tournament for at least two weeks on account of a calf injury.
The Dhoni-Raina Legacy
The five-time IPL champions have played 277 matches in franchise cricket, 253 in the IPL, and 24 matches in the now-defunct Champions League T20 tournament. Throughout these 277 matches, the franchise had either Raina or Dhoni, and most of the time, both together in their playing XI. While Raina last played the IPL in the 2021 season before calling time on his cricketing career, Dhoni continued entertaining fans in a new avatar: A lower-order finisher tasked with hitting as many fours and sixes as possible within the death overs phase of the inning.
In 278 matches, Dhoni has made 5,439 runs in 242 innings at an average of 38.30 and a strike rate of 137.45, including 24 fifties and a best score of 84*. He is the sixth-highest run-getter in the tournament history. In last season’s wooden spoon finish, Dhoni scored 196 runs in 13 innings at an average of 24.50 and a strike rate of over 135, with a best score of 30*.
Raina is the fifth-highest run-getter in the tournament history, with 5,528 runs in 205 matches and 200 innings at an average of 32.51, a strike rate of 136.73, including a century and 39 fifties.
RR and CSK playing 11s:
Rajasthan Royals: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (captain), Shimron Hetmyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Brijesh Sharma.
RR Impact Subs: Donovan Ferreira, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Ravi Singh, Sushant Mishra, Tushar Deshpande.
Chennai Super Kings: Sanju Samson, Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Ayush Mhatre, Matthew Short, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma(w), Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Matt Henry, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed.
CSK Impact Subs: Sarfaraz Khan, Prashanth Veer, Rahul Chahar, Gurjapneet Singh, Ramakrishna Ghosh.
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with inputs from agency
