IPL 2023: Former Chennai Super Kings star recalls first meeting with MS Dhoni | READ

IPL 2023: The 16th edition of the Indian Premier League is just less than a week away and all the teams have started their preparations for the most awaited tournament. Chennai Super Kings is often known to be one of the most successful franchises in the history of the world's toughest T20 league. Chennai Super Kings in their initial years had a beautiful core that consisted of players like MS Dhoni, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, Michael Hussey, and Subramanium Badrinath. 

Except for MS Dhoni none of the players are now a part of the CSK franchise and Suresh Raina who is often known to be one of the closest friends Dhoni while speaking to Jio Cinema shared an incident when he watched the former India wicketkeeper-batsman for the first time. 

Sharing the incident Raina said, "We were hearing a lot about a player with long hair from Jharkhand known for hitting it out of the park consistently. This one day, we all were hanging around while Dhoni bhai quietly was eating his roti and butter chicken in a corner. Gyanu bhai saw him and said, 'I don't think he's going to do us any damage. He's enjoying his food; let him do that."

While MS Dhoni came out to bat for East Zone, Central Zone captain Mohammad Kaif had set up an attacking field and put slips and a gully while he was batting. 

"From the word go, he hit gagan chumbhi (sky-touching) sixes, and Gyanu bhai had to eat his words", Raina said. 

MS Dhoni has won Chennai Super Kings many matches in the Indian Premier League. One such match was in the IPL 2010 when CSK needed to win every match to qualify for the playoffs. Dhoni played match-winning innings against the Kings XI Punjab which is now known as Punjab Kings. 

MS Dhoni hit two sixes in the last over of Irfan Pathan and the last six he hit nearly went out of the ground. Remembering the incident Raina said, "He clubbed a big one over long-on, and then punched his helmet. I have never seen him do this in any match or any situation. Everyone knew him as Captain Cool, but the energy he showed was because of the match situation."

MS Dhoni is known for his cool and calm nature but for the first time he was seen pumped up after letting his team win the match. Dhoni retired from international cricket in 2020 and hours after his retirement Suresh Raina also retired for the same on the same day.  MS Dhoni is now only seen featuring for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL and will play against the Gujarat Titans in the inaugural match of the IPL 2023 on March 31, 2023 that will be played in the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad