With the IPL 2025 season around the corner, Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Sanju Samson expressed his admiration for the legendary MS Dhoni while also revealing that how much he values spending time with the former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper.
While Dhoni had stepped down as the CSK captain ahead of the IPL 2024 season, the 43-year-old will feature in the 2025 edition as an uncapped player.
CSK, led by Ruturaj Gaikwad, will open their campaign against Mumbai Indians (MI) at the iconic Chepauk on March 23.
"Like every young Indian cricketer, I always wanted to be around MS Dhoni. Every time we played against CSK, I wanted to sit and talk to him, ask him how he does things. It was a dream for me. I remember playing a match against CSK in Sharjah, where I finally performed well, scored around 70-80 runs, won the game, and became the Man of the Match. After that, I met Mahi bhai, and since then, our relationship has grown. Even now, I meet him often. Just yesterday, I met him again. It's truly a blessed feeling--to go from idolizing him to now sitting with him for shoots and events. I feel like I'm living my dream," Samson said while speaking on JioHotstar as a part of the 'SuperStar' programme.
Ahead of the IPL 2025 mega-auction, BCCI introduced the uncapped player rule, allowing franchises to retain Indian cricketers who haven’t played international cricket for the past five years.
CSK made the most of this rule as they retained MS Dhoni for INR 4 crore. Having last played for India in the 2019 World Cup, the veteran wicketkeeper fulfilled this criteria.
In the 2024 season, Dhoni scored 161 runs at a strike rate of 220 and an average of 53.66 after 11 innings, staying unbeaten eight times and fulfilling the role of a finisher for the five-time champions.
Overall, Dhoni has 5243 runs to his name in the IPL innings at an average of 39.12 and a strike rate of 137.53, including 24 half-centuries. Other than CSK, he also played for a now-defunct franchise Rising Pune Supergiant (RPG) in 2016 and 2017.
(With ANI Inputs)
