IPL: 5 Players who can replace MS Dhoni as CSK captain

5. Manish Pandey

With plenty of options available for awarding the duties of a captain, CSK can think of going with an unlikely option in the form of Manish Pandey. As there is a trend in IPL of preferring Indians over the overseas players for the captaincy, Pandey can be seen as an option. He is an experienced guy and has been playing IPL since the inaugural season.

The Karnataka batter was not in the form in the 2022 season, as Lucknow Super Giants dropped him from the playing 11 after a few games. The Lucknow-based franchise may think of releasing him before the 2023 IPL auction. There are possibilities that CSK can think out of the box and purchase Pandey and hand over the captaincy to him.

The 32-year-old holds the record for most T20s won as a captain in a single year. He won 16 T20s in 2019 while captaining Karnataka. Those 16 matches were the only 16 matches he captained Karnataka that year. He has been captaining Karnataka for the last several years. With the bat in hand, he has played some quality knocks in IPL. He was the first Indian to score an IPL century.