Bollywood star Irrfan Khan, who passed away on Wednesday, was a big fan of former India captain MS Dhoni. He had also played cricket and as said by him on the talk show, 'Son of Abish'.

The veteran actor was picked to play for the BCCI’s Col. CK Nayudu Tournament (Under-23) but lack of money ended his dream.

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Irrfan had come in defense of Dhoni when India performed poorly at home against England. The Test series of four matches was lost by India at home. Defending the then India captain after a not so up to the mark shown in the third Test at Kolkata, he wrote, "Now they'll find the scapegoat and that would be dhoni."

In an interview with the Telegram, Irrfan had named his favorite cricketers.

“At one point of time, I used to like Sachin (Tendulkar). Kapil (Dev) was also a favorite. (MS) Dhoni has shown some character. He has won matches for India on his own. He is a great captain,” he said in 2014.

Irrfan, 53, used to follow cricket passionately. "There was an India-Pakistan match. I was very young. Zaheer Abbas was there. I went to take his autograph. That was the first time as I never took autographs from anybody in my life. He just looked at me… and I felt so humiliated. I felt really bad. I was a Zaheer Abbas and Imran Khan fan."

He had also reacted to Dhoni's decision to quit India captaincy in 2017. "What a captain you've been @msdhoni! Will always remember you winning world cups almost single-handedly.", he tweeted.