The union of Dhoni and Stephen Fleming has been a proven success formula at the Indian Premier League.

In their 8 years of partnership at IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK), which has been suspended now, made the team win two IPL triumphs and two Champions League trophies.

But the partnership ended after CSK was suspended for two years, after it was out that, its officials and co-owners are involved in the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal. Even, Rajasthan Royals was suspended for the same reason.

After they got suspended, two new franchises, from Rajkot and Pune, won the bids to be part of the forthcoming edition of the IPL - replacing CSK and RR for two seasons.

It is with this, Dhoni and Fleming partnership is expected to be a reality again, as Sanjiv Goenka's New Rising-owned Pune franchise, who have already bagged Dhoni in the recently held player draft, is likely to appoint the former New Zealand captain as the head coach, a report says. A formal declaration on the same, is expected to come in a few days.

In the first IPL draft, Pune franchise roped in five players - including CSK's Dhoni, Faf du Plessis, Ravichandran Ashwin, Steven Smith and RR’s Ajinkya Rahane.

Reacting to the draft, Harsh Goenka, chairman of RPG Enterprises and brother of Sanjiv Goenka, tweeted: “#IPLDraft Pune with Dhoni as Captain and Fleming as Coach has built a formidable core team. Winning choices made.”

It was this announcement that gave rise to the speculations that, Fleming can be seen in Pune franchise.

On the other side, Fleming said, “I am not in a position to make any comment at this point in time.”

But raising the hopes, Sanjiv again made an announcement which read, “We have approached a lot of people and have shortlisted a few. But I don't think it would be right to reveal any names at this stage. We are in the final process of negotiations and you have to wait for a couple of more days for the name.”

Adding further, Sanjiv clarified that, Sourav Ganguly would not be the part of IPL  franchise.

By Phani Ch