MS Dhoni has been looking good in CSK nets.
MS Dhoni flexed his six-hitting skills during CSK’s match practice ahead of IPL 2026 in Navalur, where several main bowlers were taken apart. He has been working hard to add value as a batter at this age and must be pleased with his progress as a batter despite playing no other cricket.
An X (formerly Twitter) user, Vinoth Kumar, shared a few clips in which Dhoni looked in full flow and hit batters all around the park against bowlers like Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, and Jamie Overton. He hit a maximum towards the sightscreen with a stable base, before whacking one over covers off Mukul Choudhary’s bowling with brute power.
That ball went on to hit the compound wall and gave a glimpse of his peak years with this shot. He wasn’t done just yet; MS Dhoni later hit another maximum over midwicket against Jamie Overton, where the ball came from the middle of the bat.
Interestingly, he also placed a stump on the wide line to measure wide yorkers and drilled one down the ground when the bowler attempted a yorker on the middle stump. Clearly, his focus was on maintaining his shape and generating maximum power from a stable base, something CSK would expect in IPL 2026.
MS Dhoni will be surrounded by several inexperienced and unproven batters in the middle and lower middle order in IPL 2026. He will need to do the heavy lifting since the likes of Karthik Sharma and Prashant Veer are yet to play at the IPL level, while Jamie Overton hasn’t had enough chances.
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Hence, Dhoni becomes integral for CSK in death overs, but his ageing reflexes will make things tricky for the legendary batter. However, he has been leaving no stone unturned in his preparations, and his focus has always been on generating as much power as possible by maintaining his shape.
Last season, he showed signs of regression at times, and his ability to maintain the standards at 44 was in doubt earlier. However, MS Dhoni must have put those doubts to rest with his recent exploits against the best of the bowlers.

A lot of issues for CSK will be solved if he could replicate the net session success in the original match and power pacers in the slog overs. Early indications are pleasing for the five-time champions, as MS Dhoni possibly gears up for a swansong in IPL.
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