The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 is in discussions for various reasons, and one among those is if this could be MS Dhoni‘s last IPL appearance. Although Dhoni has refrained from giving out any information about his retirement and is currently focused on leading Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the ongoing tournament, the media have repeatedly raised questions over his farewell from IPL.
Dhoni’s former CSK teammate and ex-India opener, Murali Vijay, has now come out to urge people not to put pressure on the 41-year-old cricketer and give him space to take the decision. Vijay also slammed the media for constantly fuelling up and inciting retirement talks of Dhoni.
“It’s an individual choice. It’s high time people understand what a cricketer is going through. He’s served our country for about 15 years. So we should be giving him space to take that call, rather than putting pressure by asking when he’s going to retire. It’s very harsh for y’all to ask this question. Everybody is asking about MS’ retirement,” said Vijay while talking to Sportskeeda.
“It is so sad for me to sit and answer it. I have retired recently, so I know how it feels. We have given our heart and soul to this game and it’s a personal choice, and I want to tell people to maintain that little bit of privacy,” he added.
Notably, the Chennai-based franchise are performing well under Dhoni’s leadership in the 16th edition of the league so far and sits at the third position of the points tally. Dhoni has also been performing well for the team, batting lower down the order and has led the side to three wins in five matches.
It is noteworthy that Vijay has been part of the CSK family for eight seasons and he recently retired from all forms of international cricket. The Tamil Nadu cricketer represented India in 61 Tests, 17 ODIs and 9 T20Is.