Chopra recalled the time before his former roommate Dhoni made India debut.
Former India wicketkeeper MS Dhoni has left a massive impact on the game with his leadership and performances in pressure situations over the years.
Dhoni is the only skipper in the history of cricket to have won all three ICC white-ball trophies – 2007 World T20, 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy. He also led India to the top of the rankings in the longest format of the game.
Dhoni may have called time on his international career in 2020, but he continues to feature in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The 43-year-old captained CSK to a record-equalling fifth IPL title last year.
While Dhoni’s success is known to the cricketing world, his time before he broke onto the scene remains untold. Recently, former India opener Aakash Chopra recalled the time before his former roommate Dhoni made India debut.
Chopra, who represented India in 10 Test matches, was picked for an India A tour in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Ahead of the series, the players gathered in Bengaluru for a month-long camp, which is where he met Dhoni, who also was his roommate.
“MS and I go back in a very strange way. In 2004, there was an India A tour in Zimbabwe and Kenya. I had already played for India by then. There was a camp in Bangalore. When I reached the hotel, I was told that Mahendra Singh Dhoni was my roommate. I asked, 'Where does he come from?' I was told that he was from Ranchi. I only heard of him once. I actually saw him playing at some domestic game, in the Deodhar Trophy, where he scored lots of runs. But that was it, I never talked to him then. And then we were in Bengaluru, where we were roommates for a month, and that was a different Dhoni,” Chopra said while speaking to Raj Shamani on his YouTube show.
Aakash Chopra’s first impression of MS Dhoni was that he was “very shy.” He recounted that Dhoni never called for room service during the one-month period and thus settled for eating veg foods despite being a non-vegetarian.
“His phone used to ring a lot, but he never answered it. When I asked him what time he goes to sleep, because we had to figure the time, and he said, 'Whenever you are comfortable, you can switch off the lights.' Moreover, he was non-vegetarian and I was vegetarian, so it was not a great partnership. So when I asked him what he wanted to eat, he said, 'Whatever you feel like eating.' He never used to call for room service. He was just too shy. For one whole month he ate vegetarian food,” Chopra remarked.
The cricketer-turned-commentator further stated that Dhoni was “carefree, and not careless,” as he recalled one of his knocks during the India A game in Kenya, where he pulled off reverse-sweep six against a Pakistan bowler named Iftikhar Anjum.
“So that was a very different Dhoni - carefree but not careless. Carefree because he was very confident and happy with where he was, and not careless because when he got an opportunity, in Kenya and not in Zimbabwe, he batted like a man possessed. Before him, I never saw a batter hit a reverse sweep against a bowler. There was a Pakistan bowler named Iftikhar Anjum, who used to bowl at 140+kmph and already played for his country...Dhoni hit him for a four at fine leg. The bowler changed his field, sent back the fine leg fielder and called in the one at third man, but Dhoni smashed the next ball for a six over the third man region. I was like, 'Who is this guy?' He never used to bat in the nets. He, in fact, used to bowl to Dinesh Karthik, his competitor. He wasn't getting the opportunity to play, but he wanted to keep himself involved. I told him, 'Why are you bowling to Karthik? Why aren't you batting? If he keeps batting and does all the scoring, when will you bat?' But he replied saying, 'No, I just want to bowl because I'm enjoying it.' He is just talented. In fact, he does not practice keeping that much, but his hands are faster than anyone in the world even now,” Chopra said.