“Who does MS have his eyes on? Ruturaj Gaikwad is a good option. This year is a very important year for CSK, more than for Dhoni, because we’ll see who he is going to select as his deputy and probably say: ‘You handle this now, I’ve been looking after the team since 2008. You take care of the yellow, I will wear the jersey and sit in the dressing room’,” he added.

Also Read: 'Was lost in the debut of all these boys': Skipper Rohit Sharma

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Besides his World Cup triumphs and India’s march to the World No. 1 position in Tests, Dhoni has led CSK to a joint-record five IPL titles. Former India pacer Zaheer Khan insists that cricket remains integral but “not everything” for Dhoni, who has a penchant for catching the world off-guard and an eagerness to explore various avenues. The charismatic former India skipper quit international cricket four years ago.

Zaheer said, “When you’re playing, switching off [from the game] is very important. Cricket is not everything. Every cricketer has to face this eventually. When you step away from the game, you may not have a lot of options. We’ve seen many athletes struggle after retiring because they gave everything to the game, and when they left it, they didn’t know what to do. In this sense, MS Dhoni understood a long time ago that he is passionate about cricket and it is an integral part of his life, but it couldn’t be everything. He keeps doing things outside of the sport. For example, his interest in bikes. He’s always researching them,” added Zaheer. The IPL starts on Friday with reigning champions CSK taking Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the opener.