Ravichandran Ashwin on Thursday shared an interesting incident which helped him get noticed by MS Dhoni. Ashwin, who got his IPL breakthrough in the 2010 edition with Chennai Super Kings under Dhoni revealed how he got the latter’s attention.
“It’s an evolving relationship. MS didn’t even know someone like me existed in 2008. And because of that, I made it my life’s goal — from 2009, it was to get the wicket of MS Dhoni. When a person has a goal like this, he will go crazy when an opportunity to achieve it pops up,” he said in a launch event for his book I Have the Streets – A Kutti Cricket Story.
“We were playing the Challenger Trophy, and I bowled an unbelievable spell. MS would struggle through that spell in Nagpur. Once, when he tried to play, the ball went through his gates. I got him out in the final. From then on, I think he saw somebody with skill, and the relationship matured,” he said.
“One of MS’ usual qualities is that, if he decides this horse (a player) is not ready to race, he will not use you. He needs to know you’re a horse. But, once he knows you’re a horse, only when you feel like giving up, he will look past you. That is MS Dhoni; he believes in you,” he added.
Earlier this month, in a high-profile transfer move, Ashwin rejoined the India Cements, paving way for his return to the Chennai Super Kings fold. As part of the deal, Ashwin is all set to take charge of the Chennai Super Kings High Performance Centre, which is coming up in the outskirts of the city and is expected to be fully functional before the start of the next IPL season.
The transfer move means there is a strong possibility that Ashwin could reunite with CSK at the big player auctions scheduled for the end of this year. With this being a big player auction, a trade off between CSK and Rajasthan Royals is ruled out as they won’t be able to retain him. In case, CSK are not able to acquire Ashwin at the auctions, the only other possibility is they make a trade post the player auctions.
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