Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the crowd at Chennai have adopted MS Dhoni as one of their own since the inception of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008. Dhoni has led CSK to three IPL titles in 2010, 2011, and 2018.
Like every other CSK player, Lungi Ngidi of South Africa also witnessed how big Dhoni was in Chennai when it came to cricket. Ngidi, who made his IPL debut in 2018 under Dhoni, revealed how he was blown away by his captain's aura, one that literally gave him goosebumps.
"When I first arrived at Chennai, you'd walk out and you'd hear the crowd chant his name, you would get goosebumps and they're not even talking about you. He is massive for cricket, massive for Chennai. Like everyone says, Captain Cool," Ngidi told ESPNCricinfo.
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Ngidi picked 11 wickets in IPL 2018 but had to opt-out of IPL 2019 due to side strain. In IPL 2020, the South African pacer took 9 wickets in 4 matches, in what was a disappointing performance by the CSK franchise, as they failed to make it to the playoffs.
Of the many qualities of Dhoni, the one feature that stands out for Ngidi is the CSK skipper's consistency, with almost everything he does.
"He's been very consistent; that's the one thing I was amazed with the most… his consistency and how he carries himself behaves as a captain. For me, that was one of the most amazing things. Never showing too much emotion but when you'd need to get a bit of a pick-up talk from the captain, he'd give it to you. Very amazing man and very happy to be playing under him," Ngidi added.
CSK acquired the services of Moeen Ali, Krishnappa Gowtham, Cheteshwar Pujara, M Harisankar Reddy, K Bhagath Varma and C Hari Nishanth in the IPL 2021 auction and Ngidi said that he was looking forward to playing with the new additions to the team.
"The combination is going to be interesting to see. Who plays, who misses out but the coaching staff and the captain get along very well and they've always got plans to fix things. So, I'm really excited to see how the guys are going to get it this year," the pacer said.
