Ruturaj Gaikwad (Image credit: BCCI/IPL)

NEW DELHI: Chennai Super Kings suffered a major setback as regular skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad was ruled out of the IPL due to an elbow injury — a development that has paved the way for Mahendra Singh Dhoni to return to the leadership role. CSK head coach Stephen Fleming confirmed the news on Thursday. Gaikwad sustained the injury after being struck by a short ball from Jofra Archer during CSK’s IPL 2025 clash against Rajasthan Royals.
“Ruturaj Gaikwad ruled out of IPL with fracture on elbow. MS Dhoni to take over as captain,” Fleming told mediapersons on Thursday.
“He (Gaikwad) got hit in Guwahati. He’s been operating with an amount of pain. We got an X-ray, which was inconclusive, and we had an MRI, which revealed a fracture in his elbow, in the radial neck. So we’re disappointed and feel for him. We appreciate the efforts that he’s gone to in terms of trying to play, but unfortunately, he’d be out of the tournament from now. We have an uncapped player, MS Dhoni, who will take over as captain for the remainder of the IPL,” Fleming added at a press conference.
Dhoni, who came out for the toss for CSK, also confirmed that Gaikwad was ruled out of the season. He made two changes to the Playing XI, bringing in Rahul Tripathi in place of Gaikwad and including Anshul Kamboj for Mukesh Choudhary.
“We were looking to bat first. Quite a few occasions where we tried to chase it down and what we realised is that the wicket slows down a bit, so if you don’t get a good start then the middle order comes under pressure. (On Ruturaj) He has fractured something on his elbow, so he is ruled out of the tournament. He is a very authentic batter, someone who looks to time the ball well. So yeah, he will be a big miss,” Dhoni said during the toss.

“(On the importance of winning this game) It is important now, every game is important. We have lost too many matches and now it is important to do the basics right – have dot balls, take our catches. A couple of games we lost by big margins, but otherwise it was about the small things – about one over going for 20 runs. Our batters are more authentic as batters, they won’t slog everything. They just need to back their instincts. It is important to start well, get boundaries early on and try to get a couple of early wickets as well. Couple of changes for us – Tripathi comes in for Ruturaj, and Anshul Kambhoj in for Mukesh,” he said.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Rahul Tripathi, Vijay Shankar, Shivam Dube, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed