C Hari Nishaanth, CSK’s Ooty-born new recruit, shared a picture of him training with his childhood hero MS Dhoni and called it a dream come true moment.
Former Indian captain MS Dhoni is in Chennai and training hard for the upcoming IPL 2021 which is scheduled to kickstart from April 9. The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain is making headlines continuously in Chennai. The franchise posted a viral video of the hard-hitting batsman smashing the white balls for gigantic sixes in the stands as fans were delighted and hopeful that CSK will finish in the playoffs after a poor outing in IPL 2020.
C Hari Nishaanth Who Grew Up Idolising MS Dhoni Elated After Training With His Childhood Hero
MS Dhoni hasn’t played any professional cricket after his team’s last league encounter against Punjab Kings in IPL 2020. However, he started off the preparations for the premier event early this season. Few of his teammates have also joined him in the training camp which got underway this week.
MS Dhoni is 39 and still fit enough to challenge any youngster. The two-time World Cup-winning captain continues to be an inspiration to millions of fans across the world and very few are as lucky as CSK’s new recruit Hari Nishaanth, who is elated after training with his childhood hero.
The 24-year-old Ooty-born has shared a picture of him with ‘Thala’ MS Dhoni and described his experience of sharing the dressing room with the legendary batsman, keeper, and skipper as a “dream come true”.
“Grew up idolizing you and watching you win so many games for CSK & India under tremendous pressure. It’s been an honour to share the dressing room with you and pick up every little thing that you share. Dreams do come true!” C Hari Nishaanth captioned the image.
MS Dhoni has played 204 IPL matches scoring 4632 runs averaging 40.99. IPL 2020 wasn’t as fruitful as he managed only 200 runs in 14 appearances averaging only 25.
He led them to two titles (2010 & 2011) before being drafted by the defunct Rising Pune Supergiant in the ninth edition of the league. But he was retained by CSK ahead of the IPL Player Auction 2018. IPL 2018 was won by CSK to bring up their third IPL trophy.
C Hari Nishaanth Was Bought By The 3 Time Champions For His Base Price
C Hari Nishaanth was bought by the 3-time champions at his base price of Rs 20 lakh at the IPL 2021 auction which was held in Chennai on February 18. The southpaw has experience of playing 1 first-class, 6 List A, and 20 T20 matches. He made his first-class debut for Tamil Nadu against Madhya Pradesh in 2019.
In T20 cricket, C Hari Nishaanth has scored 327 runs at a strike-rate of 120.18. CSK finished second from the bottom in IPL 2020, failing to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in their tournament history.
The franchise released the likes of Kedar Jadhav, Murali Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Monu Singh, Shane Watson(retired). CSK spent big on acquiring services of England’s spinner Moeen Ali on the board for 7 Crores while off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham got a big contract from CSK. Another notable player that was acquired was Test specialist batsman Cheteshwar Pujara who announced his desire to play limited-overs T20 cricket again.
Krishnappa Gowtham became the most expensive uncapped Indian player in the history of the competition. The MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) broke the bank to acquire the services of the spinner all-rounder, signing him for a whopping price of Rs. 9.25 crore.
The all-rounder scored 126 runs and took 11 wickets in 2018 where he played 15 games. He played only 7 games in 2019 for Rajasthan and only 2 in 2020 for Punjab Kings (formerly Kings XI Punjab) and didn’t perform that well.