Chennai Super Kings’ very own ‘Thala’ made history in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as he will captain the side during the IPL 2025 match against Kolkata Knight Riders. With CSK’s primary skipper, Ruturaj Gaikwad, sustaining a hairline fracture on the elbow, the captaincy baton went to Dhoni, the joint-most successful captain in IPL history, with 5 titles to his name. As CSK take on KKR at Chepauk, Dhoni broke two more records in the esteemed T20 league. Dhoni became the first ‘uncapped player’ in IPL history to captain the franchise. Dhoni, though a veteran of over 500 international games, became an ‘uncapped player’ because of a new rule that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) introduced ahead of the 18th edition of the league.

Since Dhoni hasn’t played any international cricket match over the last 5 years, he earned the tag of an ‘uncapped player’, because of the new rule.

Another record that Dhoni broke was that of becoming the oldest captain in the history of the league. Dhoni, aged 43, assumed the captaincy responsibility once again, while also breaking his own record. Dhoni, at the age of 41 years and 325 days, became the oldest captain to lead a franchise in the IPL 2023 season.

CSK head coach Stephen Fleming said Dhoni had no hesitation in taking up the captaincy responsibilities after knowing that Ruturaj has been ruled out for the entire season.

“He 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.”