Summer is here in Chennai and so is MS Dhoni who has defined every single one of them since 2008 (even when they weren't part of the IPL he was the face of fan campaigns to bring them back). Eighteen years later, it's no different. On a scorching day, around 21,000 fans turned up at Chepauk, buying tickets ranging from INR 2000 to 30000, to see their Thala train in flesh and blood.
Dhoni arrived in the city on February 28, and began training with the Chennai Super Kings squad behind closed doors from March 1. Chennai caught up with him only through reels of his six-hitting and social-media videos of him watching Dhurandhar 2 at a popular theatre. He is like a ghost. You never get to see him for ten months in a year. He comes to life for only two months during the summer and hots up the IPL.
A few kilometres away from the theatre on Sunday, Dhoni and CSK, including players from the past, came together at Chepauk to serve up a blockbuster of their own.
Thala Dharisanam#Roar26 #WhistlePodu pic.twitter.com/RST5EpXKct
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) March 22, 2026
The evening featured performances and speeches from Oscar-winning musician AR Rahman and popular Tamil actor Sivakarthikeyan, but the biggest cheer was, of course, reserved for Dhoni. He raised the roof when he walked out to the middle at 4.30pm and engaged in some light warm-ups.
The crowd went wild again when Dhoni kept wicket in fun match-ups, involving CSK OGs like Suresh Raina, Dwayne Bravo, Matthew Hayden, M Vijay, Ambati Rayudu and Muthiah Muralidaran. When he feigned to stump Bravo off Shreyas Gopal, the usually stoic Dhoni broke into a smile and gestured to his old team-mate that he had one-upped him. Twenty-one thousand fans appealed with Dhoni and celebrated with him.
Sanju Samson then drew a reception that almost rivalled Dhoni's when he walked out to face Muralidaran. The C,D,E stands were heaving and chanting: "Twinkle twinkle little star, Sanju is a superstar!" The chants grew louder when he short-armed pulled a donkey-drop from Muralidaran over midwicket.
After Dhoni honoured Samson, Shivam Dube and Ayush Mhatre for their contributions to India's World Cup wins, Samson introduced himself - and his batting approach - to Chennai in Tamil.
"Onnum illa. Ball paathu suthurom. Six adikurom (laughs)." (Nothing much. See the ball, have a swing at it, and hit sixes)
"Thatturom [cup ah] Thookurom." (We are going to lift the trophy)
Samson is yet to play a game for CSK, but Chennai is already seeing Dhoni in Samson. A World Cup-winning wicketkeeper-batter has made the city fall head over heels. It's happening all over again.
When Rahman took the centerstage, he even dedicated a special song to Samson, saying: "Sanju mone (my boy), this one's for you" and belted out the famous Malayalam verse at the start of the Uyire chartbuster Nenjinile, with fans screaming their lungs out and fireworks being launched into the night sky.
It certainly felt like a new hero had arrived in Chennai. It also felt like something else. Dhoni will turn 45 this July and he was placed front and centre, along with all the trophies he's won for the franchise towards the end of the night. That's a signing off picture if ever there was one, especially considering CSK don't normally do events like these. Maybe this was a farewell disguised as a pre-season event.
The Dhoni phenomenon transcends numbers and results - him merely appearing at Chepauk is an event these days - and there are plenty who don't want it to end.
"It's very difficult to keep playing," Dhoni himself said when actor Sivakarthikeyan requested him to not retire. "It [fitness] is on the way down and not on the way up," Dhoni added before he quipped "I can try to play [until 50]."
Once the most feared finisher in the world, Dhoni's role has now been limited to playing around just ten balls in an innings at No.7 or even lower and hitting them for sixes. And the sixes didn't quite come off in IPL 2025, coinciding with CSK finishing rock bottom. When Dhoni struggled with the bat against Kolkata Knight Riders last season, some fans even left the stadium.
Last year, Dhoni scored 196 off 145 balls at a strike rate of 135.17, which is a significant drop-off from his strike rates of 220.54 and 182.45 in 2024 and 2023 respectively. His knees have been troubling him for a long time now, even with surgery.
After failing to make the playoffs in two consecutive seasons in 2024 and 2025 for the first time, Chennai is hoping that Dhoni and Samson will deliver an unprecedented sixth IPL title.
Along the way, they want to savour every moment of Dhoni and Sunday's show was another example of it.