The new member of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Piyush Chawla observed MS Dhoni during the practice session ahead of IPL 2020. He said Dhoni was all game for the tournament but the pandemic didn't allow IPL on time.

Interacting with Aakash Chopra on his show 'Aakash Vani', Chawla said Dhoni wasn't looking rusty despite being away from cricket for a long time.

“Dhoni must have done something in Ranchi. Even after such a long gap, he did not look rusty at all. He used to see off 5-6 balls in the CSK batting sessions and then used to put on a show of big shots.”

“He was batting for long sessions. There were limited people at the camp, with many of them being bowlers. Every batsman was playing for 2-2.5 hours at a stretch, they must have been playing 200-250 balls per batsman,” said Chawla. He also named Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, and Murali Vijay.

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Chawla lauded Dhoni's captaincy and said he likes how the former India skipper speaks very less but makes sure to pass the message. “A great captain will not speak a lot, but whatever he says will have an effect on you,” he said.

Dhoni showed good signs ahead of IPL by scoring 123 runs in a practice match among CSK players. But the camp was suspended on March 14, a couple of weeks before IPL 2020 in wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

“MS is a natural athlete and supremely fit. He didn’t look rusty, didn’t look one bit like he was away from the game. He was clearly looking forward to the season, the way he was training, batting, keeping and being involved with the team,” CSK bowling coach Lakshmipathy Balaji had said earlier.

The team physio Tommy Simsek was surprised to see Dhoni doing wicket-keeping training for the first time in 10 years.