Ashwin silences panelist over Dhoni's captaincy talk during live broadcast

Former Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who is representing Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) 18th season, interrupted a panelist during a live broadcast on his YouTube channel for discussing Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s leadership skills

This happened shortly after Ravichandran Ashwin made it clear that he will no discussing CSK games in the Indian Premier League 2025 on his YouTube channel.

After a panelist chastised the team for favoring Noor Ahmad over the Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, the 38-year-old spinner Ashwin found himself in a serious bind.

Ashwin examined a number of recent matches from the 18th season of the T20 league in his most recent video. He purposefully avoided bringing up CSK’s most recent results, though. A panelist in the video emphasized the value of great leadership, and Ashwin seemed uneasy when MS Dhoni’s name was brought up.

“I’m thrilled that you won the match. Ashwin, the only thing is that you’ve captained a team before. The team you led won the TNPL. Leadership, in my opinion, is incredibly important, and someone like Sanju, Shreyas Iyer, or Thala Dhoni are examples of true leaders,” the panelist commented.

“Sshhh… Ssshhhh,”, Ravichandran Ashwin replied. Another panellist had to intervene and said that the spinner cannot not speak about MS Dhoni and CSK on his own platform, he could express his thoughts as just an audience member.

“No, you shouldn’t be talking. I can speak. I’m just an audience member,” he added.

Then, indicating that this problem wasn’t exclusive to CSK, Ravichandran Ashwin explained that he had never talked about his own team, not even while he was with the Rajasthan Royals.

“I’ve never commented on RR,” the spinner clarified.