Mahendra Singh Dhoni has become kind of inseparable from Chennai Super Kings and the Indian Premier League. Over the years, he stayed as the face of the franchise and also one of the tournament’s bigger draws. Fans basically wait all year, to see the legendary cricketer show up during the IPL season, you know. But IPL 2026 turned out different, because MSD couldn’t feature in even a single match , for the first time ever in his IPL career. Dhoni has played for CSK since the league kicked off back in 2008. From then up to IPL 2026, he had never actually skipped the whole league stage campaign for the franchise. Going into this season, Thala had a calf injury, it forced him to miss the early matches. Even though some reports said he was fit again by mid-April, Dhoni reportedly didn’t want to mess with the already settled team balance, so he stayed out of the playing XI. The experienced wicketkeeper batter also stayed out of the dugout for most of the season, kind of quietly. A lot of people figured MS would come back during the final phase of the tournament , or at minimum for CSK’s last league match. Yet later reports ,sort of slipped in, saying that he had picked up a thumb injury before he traveled back to Ranchi, while the rest of the group kept going toward Ahmedabad. Before IPL 2026, Dhoni had missed only five matches in the tournament history, yeah , and it wasn’t some random thing. Those games came vs Delhi Daredevils , Kings XI Punjab, and Royal Challengers Bengaluru back in 2010. Then later there were more gaps , against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians during 2019. Dhoni still feels like CSK’s most successful captain, because he guided the franchise to five IPL trophies and 10 finals, simple as that. He handed over the captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad before IPL 2025 , but CSK sort of brought the responsibility back to him after Gaikwad got injured and couldn’t play the rest of the tournament. Also Read | Sai of Relief! Sudharsan enters elite list alongside Jos Buttler and Virender Sehwag with five consecutive 50s in IPL MS Dhoni IPL stats: Tournament Teams Mat Runs Ave SR Ct St IPL 2025 CSK 14 196 24.50 135.17 6 5 IPL 2024 CSK 14 161 53.66 220.54 10 0 IPL 2023 CSK 16 104 26.00 182.45 7 3 IPL 2022 CSK 14 232 33.14 123.40 9 0 IPL 2021 CSK 16 114 16.28 106.54 13 0 IPL 2020/21 CSK 14 200 25.00 116.27 15 1 IPL 2019 CSK 15 416 83.20 134.62 11 5 IPL 2018 CSK 16 455 75.83 150.66 11 3 IPL 2017 RPS 16 290 26.36 115.99 10 3 IPL 2016 RPS 14 284 40.57 135.23 8 4 IPL 2015 CSK 17 372 31.00 121.96 8 3 IPL 2014 CSK 16 371 74.20 148.40 3 1 IPL 2013 CSK 18 461 41.90 162.89 15 2 IPL 2012 CSK 19 358 29.83 128.77 12 2 IPL 2011 CSK 16 392 43.55 158.70 5 5 IPL 2009/10 CSK 13 287 31.88 136.66 5 6 IPL 2009 CSK 14 332 41.50 127.20 4 4 IPL 2007/08 CSK 16 414 41.40 133.54 6 0