Delhi: If we carefully note the changes made in the team structure by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the last few days to complete its 25 cricketers for IPL 2026 and the final list made from it, then a very special thing comes to the fore: even after retaining MS Dhoni and Urvil Patel in the list of wicketkeepers, two wicketkeepers Sanju Samson and Karthik Sharma were added to the team. Of these, by acquiring Samson in the trade window, they had 3 wicketkeepers.

Four wicketkeepers and big investment

Even then, another wicketkeeper Karthik Sharma, despite being an uncapped player, was bought with a contract worth Rs 14.2 crore. In other words now they have 4 wicketkeepers. A total of Rs 32.30 crore was not spent on Samson and Karthik because they had to be made to sit on the bench. It is not an ordinary thing to spend so much money on players with a special skill of wicketkeeper.

Pointing towards the post Dhoni era

In the playing eleven, playing more than one of these means that someone will have to play as a pure batsman. The second conclusion is that the franchise has sounded the trumpet of preparations after MS Dhoni. There is no doubt that at the age of 44+, Dhoni is prolonging his cricket career by playing IPL due to his unique loyalty with Chennai Super Kings. Still, this trend has to be stopped at some point. Now, with the changes made by Chennai Super Kings in the team building policy, if the next project is to build a team in the ‘post Dhoni’ era, then the countdown has started for it.

Keeping an eye on the future core team

Although, there is no indication from MS Dhoni about retiring from IPL, but from a cricketing point of view, this is what has to happen. The interesting thing is that the team which has been dependent only on Dhoni behind the stumps since the first season of IPL, now has three wicketkeepers in addition to Dhoni. Dhoni had admitted during the last IPL season that he was in the final stages of his career. That is why he is no longer the number 1 name in the retainer list and being retained for Rs 4 crore is nothing for the most iconic finisher of cricket.

Robin Uthappa, who played with Dhoni, even said, ‘Everything is clear. This is definitely going to be Dhoni’s last season. They also consider this to be the right time for Dhoni to step down. According to him, now the Chennai team will have to identify a core team from this group and move forward.