CHENNAI: Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni, who had a successful left knee surgery earlier this year, is likely to hit the nets in next 10 days, said CEO KS Viswanathan on Saturday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the trophy and jersey unveiling event of the Junior Super Kings inter-school T20 tournament, Viswanathan gave an update on Dhoni’s recovery. “He is doing well now. He has started his rehab.He is working in the gym. And, probably in another 10 days, he’ll start working in the nets also.”

Viswanathan said the CSK team will conduct its pre-season camp from the first week of March. “The IPL season is likely to start by March 22, so we are planning to conduct the first camp by the first week of March in Chennai,” said Viswanathan.

Next year’s IPL will be coinciding with the Lok Sabha elections and when Viswanathan was asked if there were any plans for a split schedule, he replied: “I have no idea. They (BCCI) have not informed us anything about a split schedule. What they have said is that we should be prepared to play the IPL in India, this is what we got to hear from them during the auction.”
In the recently-concluded IPL 2024 auction, CSK covered most of their bases and recruited six new players, with World Cup hero Daryl Mitchell headlining the list. Viswanathan felt they had a successful outing at the auction.
“I would say we pretty much got all our targets. To be frank, we were planning for Mitchell. We also thought (medium-pacer) Mustafizur Rahman would be a good bet on our Chepauk wicket, with the side boundaries. These were our thoughts, but we were not sure whether we would be able to get them. Luckily, it turned out to be a good auction for us this time.”

CSK splurging Rs 8.4 crore for an uncapped player – Sameer Rizvi – raised quite a few eyebrows. The 20-year-old Uttar Pradesh batter became one of the big buys in the auction. Viswanathan said CSK are trying to build a young team which will help them in the longer run.
“Rizvi was a target for many franchises. We were probably a bit lucky in getting Rizvi. Basically, if you look at it, we are trying to get a replacement for Ambati Rayudu. According to us, we didn’t have enough players with that kind of experience to bid for any of them. So, we thought it was better to go in for a youngster who has the promise. I’m not saying this just because we have picked him, but he is going to be the next best. Last year we got Shaik Rasheed, Nishant Sindhu and Rajvardhan Hangargekar. So, we are trying to build the team for the future also,” explained Viswanathan.