Rohit (hamstring) and Dhoni (calf) are both recovering from injury. Both batted in the Wankhede Stadium nets on Wednesday evening, with the two teams training simultaneously. Dhoni had even kept wickets on Tuesday evening, and his arrival in Mumbai was the second away game in a row for which Dhoni had travelled with the team.
While Rohit missed MI’s last two games, Dhoni hasn’t yet featured in IPL 2026.
Dhoni was the first of the two to hit the nets on Wednesday. He first did a few light jogs with CSK physio Tommy Simsek before taking a break to watch his team-mates bat. Then he padded up. He started with some tennis-ball knocking just beyond the nets before entering the nets to face fast bowlers Spencer Johnson, Mukesh Choudhary, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Aman Khan and Zak Foulkes. After a stint of about 20 minutes, he took a break, and finished his evening with throwdowns, some of which he smashed beyond the boundary rope.
CSK will be forced to make a change in the batting line-up for Thursday irrespective of Dhoni’s availability, with their top-scorer this season, the 18-year-old Ayush Mhatre, ruled out for the rest of the season with a hamstring injury. One option for CSK could be to bring in Gujarat keeper-batter Urvil Patel in the top order. If Dhoni is fit, they could use him as an Impact Player – as they have done with Mhatre – which would mean moving the batters behind openers Sanju Samson and Ruturaj Gaikwad up a slot until Dhoni comes out to bat.
“A person like MS never really goes away,” CSK bowling coach Eric Simons said of Dhoni’s value in the dressing room. “He’s always a presence. He’s always there. He’s always a resource for us. He’s always someone we bounce off and get ideas and thoughts about. The tactic that we’re using at the death has been something he’s given a lot of insights into, a lot of thoughts around as well. He’s always there as a resource.”
Rohit started his training with light jogs before he padded up for a hit. Unlike Dhoni, Rohit only faced throwdowns – both right-arm and left-arm – and did not go for too many big hits during his 25-minute stint.
Both MI and CSK are in the bottom half of the points table having made forgettable starts to their campaigns. MI have just two wins from six games, and ended a four-match losing streak by beating Gujarat Titans on Monday. CSK have taken a different route to the same number of points; they started with three losses before winning two games on the bounce, and then lost their most recent game against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
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