MS Dhoni watched the India-England T20I on July 7 on his 45th birthday.
Dhoni gave a traditional answer to a fan, miming, "I'm old now. I can hardly walk, and my beard has turned grey.”
Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar used the opportunity to welcome the smiling veteran on-air as the broadcast cameras shifted to him.
“Oh, here is the birthday boy, MS Dhoni. He turns 45 today, yet he still looks like a 26-year-old. From my side, I'd like to wish a very, very happy birthday to the greatest captain India has ever seen. I hope he plays one more IPL season for CSK because I want to see him in the yellow jersey one last time,” Gavaskar said on-air.
Notably, MS Dhoni was part of the CSK squad for the IPL 2026 season but didn’t play a single match due to a calf injury and then a thumb injury. The five-time IPL-winning captain has scored 5,439 runs in 278 matches.
MS Dhoni’s last appearance in India colors came in the 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand, where he was run out for a fifty. After it was confirmed that the T20 World Cup that was to be held in 2020 had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MS Dhoni announced his retirement from international cricket in August 2020.