Aakash Chopra, a former Indian batter, recently shared an uncommon story regarding the illustrious wicketkeeper-batter, MS Dhoni.
Aakash Chopra, a former batter for India, recently shared an uncommon story regarding the illustrious wicketkeeper-batter, MS Dhoni. Without a doubt, one of India’s best captains ever is the 42-year-old. India won the 2011 ODI World Cup, the 2013 Champions championship, and the 2007 T20 World Cup championship under his direction. Despite all the odds, Dhoni, who ended his international career in 2020, is still going strong with the Indian Premier League’s Chennai Super Kings. His involvement in the 2025 edition is still up in the air, though.
2004 was Dhoni’s debut on the international debut. The anecdote of Chopra and Dhoni sharing a room was told on a podcast by the now-famous cricket commentator.
“My history with MS is somewhat peculiar. Africa A visited Zimbabwe and Kenya on its 2004 tour. By that point, I had already represented India. In Bangalore, a camp existed. My roommate, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, was announced to me when I arrived at the hotel. Where does he come from, I wondered? I was informed he was a Ranchi native. His name escaped me at first. During a domestic game in which he participated and scored a lot of runs, I got to see him in action.However, I didn’t speak with him after that. After that, when we spent a month living together in Bengaluru, Dhoni was a different person, Chopra said to Raj Shamani on his YouTube channel. “He never answered his phone when it used to ring a lot. He answered, “Whenever you are comfortable, you can switch off the lights,” when I asked him what time he goes to bed because we had to sort that out. It was also not a wonderful partnership because I was a vegetarian and he was not. He said, “Whatever you feel like eating,” when I inquired what he wanted to eat. He was never one to order room service.Simply put, he was too shy. He didn’t eat meat for a whole month,” he continued.
Dhoni’s commitment to cricket was further praised by Chopra. He disclosed how Dhoni used to bowl in the nets during practice sessions to former wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik. But Dhoni produced strokes in the batting portion of the contest that Chopra had never seen before.
“There, Dhoni was a completely different person—carefree but not reckless. Not reckless because he batted like a man possessed when he had the chance, in Kenya rather than Zimbabwe, but carefree because he was extremely self-assured and content with where he was.I’d never seen a hitter hit a reverse sweep against a bowler before him. Iftikhar Anjum, a former Pakistani bowler who was known for hitting bowls at speeds above 140 kmph, was active in the national team.A four at fine leg from Dhoni. “The bowler altered his field, returned the fine leg fielder, and signaled for one at third man, but Dhoni hit the following ball for a six over the third man area,” Chopra remarked.
‘Who is this guy?’ I thought to myself. He didn’t play in the nets as a batter. Dinesh Karthik, his rival, was actually bowled by him once.
