Back in 2016, Perera turned up for the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant.
Not only the Indian players, but cricketers from around the world aspire to play under his captaincy in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Among the many lucky players, former Sri Lanka all-rounder Thisara Perera is also the one who has the privilege of playing under Dhoni at Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS).
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Back in 2016, Perera turned up for the now-defunct RPS, which was led by Dhoni as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) were banned from the cash-rich tournament for two years.
Speaking to News Nine, Perera recently recalled his time at RPS and hailed Dhoni as one of the best skippers he has played under.
“I remember a special incident with MS Dhoni for Rising Pune Supergiant, in 2016, and that is where I felt that Dhoni is like my brother. In one of the matches, we were 35-5, and I came down to bat. MS was the non-striker. He walked up to me and said, ‘Hi, TP. Let’s just bat’,” he said.
“I defended my first ball and he comes to me knocking the pitch – ‘Hey, TP. What are you doing?’ I said, ‘I am just watching the ball.’ The reply from him was very special, something which I didn’t expect with the sort of scorecard we were having at that time. ‘No, no. I picked you because you can hit the ball miles away,” he stated.
“Go explode’. And from there on, I was just hitting every ball. I got around 18-ball 40 or something, which took the momentum away from the opposition. MS played until the 20th over and we scored around 170 or 180 from 35-5,” Perera added.
The 2016 edition of IPL was a memorable one for Thisara Perera. He scored 150 runs from 10 innings at a strike rate of 161.29 and also accounted for nine scalps at an economy rate of 9.82.