‘Ye nahi pata tha ki itne nalle log bhi hai’ – Fans gathered in big numbers to watch MS Dhoni batting in the practice session ahead of Indian T20 League

The Chennai franchise have already begun their preparations for the upcoming season of the Indian T20 League. However, it looks like, the fans are more excited to cheer for their favourite franchise in the upcoming tournament, which can be also assumed by looking at the crowd that gathered to watch the practice session at the M.A Chidambaram stadium in Chennai.

On Monday, the Chennai franchise announced that the fans can come to the stadium to watch the practice session in the stadium. After that, a huge crowd gathered at Chepauk, and all of them were there to see a glimpse of the skipper MS Dhoni. The fans couldn’t control their excitement when Dhoni walked into the field to warm up before the upcoming season.

Fans would be eager to watch Dhoni perform well this year as it is expected to be the last outing for the former Indian skipper in Indian T20 League. Chennai will be looking to give him the perfect farewell by clinching the fifth title.

However, it looks like the franchise have already found a replacement for Dhoni as they bought Ben Stokes for the upcoming season, who is likely to lead Chennai after Dhoni’s retirement. Chennai roped in the England all-rounder for INR 16.25 crore in the 2023 auction. Apart from that, they also bought the veteran Indian batter Ajinkya Rahane for INR 50 lakh for the upcoming season.

The tournament will be played across India after four years

Chennai will kickstart the 16th edition of the Indian T20 League with an opening match against the defending champions Gujarat at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. This will be the first time since 2019 that the tournament will be played across the country in 12 cities – Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Dharamshala, Delhi, Guwahati, Mohali, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad.

Chennai squad for Indian T20 League 2023:
MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Subhranshu Senapati, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana, Ajinkya Rahane, Ben Stokes, Shaik Rasheed, Nishant Sindhu, Kyle Jamieson, Ajay Mandal, Bhagath Varma, Sisanda Magala.

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