The ex-Indian cricketer reminisced about his experiences with MS Dhoni while on the India A tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya in 2004. The cricket world has been captivated by the tale of ‘MS Dhoni, the cricketer.’
However, recently, former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra warmly recounted a few moments about ‘MS Dhoni, the roommate,’ from their shared time on India A’s tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya in 2004.
Chopra revealed some previously undisclosed stories of how the future World Cup-winning captain made extra efforts to make him feel comfortable.
“As roommates, you need balance. So, I asked him, ‘What time do you want to sleep?’ He said, ‘Whenever you want switch the lights off.’”
“So, for the whole tour, he slept at 9:30 PM. I don’t know when he usually slept, but with me in the room, he’d sleep at 9:30 PM because I wanted to sleep early,” recalled Chopra on JioCinema.
Chopra remembered Dhoni’s shyness when ordering food. “If I asked him about ordering food, he never picked up the phone and ordered.”
“Poor him, he ate vegetarian food even though he wasn’t one, just because I was vegetarian. He was so shy… He would go down and have pastry to fill his stomach because with me, he was just getting daal-roti.”
Chopra also talked about Dhoni’s generosity and how he never considered his teammates as competitors. “He used to bowl to Dinesh Karthik in the nets.”
“I used to ask him, ‘why are you doing this? He is your competition.’ He used to say, ‘No, he isn’t my competition. If you want to bat, you may do so I just wanna bowl’.”
Referring to the instance when he realized Dhoni’s batting brilliance, Chopra stated, “Iftikhar Anjumwas a Pakistani bowler and used to bowl at 140 kmph. He (Dhoni) swept him, and since the fine-leg was inside, he got a boundary.”
“The next ball, they put the 3rd man inside and fine-leg back. That was the first time I saw someone hitting a fast bowler for a reverse-sweep boundary.”
“Because the third man was inside, he reverse-swept it for a four. I was like, ‘who is this player?’ Later on, I got my answer. No other wicketkeeper played for the next 10 years for India.”
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