Free from burden of captaincy, hard-hitting batter MS Dhoni needs 81 runs to leave AB de Villiers behind on this IPL list

After relinquishing captaincy, all eyes will be on MS Dhoni, the batter in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 as this may well be his last dance. The legendary Dhoni may get to bat higher up the order under the leadership of a 27-year-old Ruturaj Gaikwad which means that he will have an opportunity to achieve a few milestones. 
 

Considering Dhoni bats in the middle-order, it is very unlikely that the wicketkeeper-batter will be able to leave Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) legend AB de Villiers behind on the list of highest run-scorers in the league's history. Dhoni needs 81 more runs to surpass De Villiers and become the sixth-highest run-scorer in IPL.
 

Dhoni has 5,082 runs from 250 games at an average of 38.79 including 24 half-centuries. The former South Africa captain retired from IPL with 5,162 runs from 184 games at an average of 39.7 including three centuries and 40 half-centuries. 
 

Another milestone in waiting

Meanwhile, Dhoni needs 43 more runs to become the second batter after Suresh Raina to score 5,000 runs for CSK (including the now-defunct T20 Champions League). 
 

Dhoni’s chance to leave Raina behind

Also, Dhoni has a chance to enter the list of the top five run-scorers of the IPL. Raina is in fifth place with 5,528 runs from 205 games at an average of 32.51 including one century and 39 half-centuries. The 42-year-old needs 447 runs to occupy the fifth spot.

ALSO READ: Ruturaj Gaikwad reacts after taking over CSK captaincy from MS Dhoni, says 'Nothing much to worry'
 

It is a tall ask as Dhoni scored 104 runs in the last season with a high score of 32 not out. The only impressive stat was his strike rate of 182.46 which was considerably higher than the last three seasons. The last time, he scored more than 400 runs in a single IPL edition was in 2019 when he was still playing international cricket. 
 

Impact player role?

Earlier in March, Dhoni in a social media post wrote that he will be playing a new role in IPL 2024. In the last season, he played with a knee injury. He had surgery after CSK’s fifth title win but it will be interesting to see whether he will be able to keep wickets in this season. It is a possibility that in a few games, Dhoni may be used as an impact player by CSK team management.
 

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