Former India cricketer Suresh Raina has backed the appointment of MS Dhoni as mentor of the Indian team for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 in UAE and Oman.

Dhoni, who led India to all the major ICC titles in white-ball cricket during his illustrious career, was asked by BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah to join the Virat Kohli-led team as a mentor. He accepted the offer and refused to charge anything for his services.

Dhoni joined the team a day after leading Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to the IPL 2021 title and was seen having discussions with several players as well as coaching staff during the warm-up matches against England and Australia, which India won comfortably.

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Raina, a close friend and teammate of Dhoni since the start of their careers both in international cricket and IPL, said that the youngsters will benefit a lot from the time they will get to spend with the former Indian captain.

Speaking during Salaam Cricket 2021, Raina said, “Almost every Indian player in the World Cup squad was part of the recently concluded IPL. MS Dhoni is also with the team. I think the morale of the team is high. Youngsters will find huge support in the form of MS Dhoni.”

India will begin their T20 World Cup campaign against the arch-rivals Pakistan on October 24.