'I told Dhoni, 'He's your competitor, don't bowl to him'' - Aakash Chopra narrates lesser-known tale from MS Dhoni's early days

MS Dhoni is counted amongst the greatest captains to have ever played the game due to his successful international and IPL career. The 41-year-old is also one of the greatest wicketkeepers in the history of international cricket, having the third-highest number of dismissals to his name (829). 

Despite being immensely talented, Dhoni had a tough time getting into the Indian team in his early days as Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel were ahead of him in the pecking order. Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra recently revealed an incident from Dhoni’s initial time in international cricket ,where he once bowled to Karthik in the nets, keeping the competition between them aside.

“Dinesh Karthik was in our team, Dhoni was also there. Karthik was our first keeper, MS was sitting outside and we were in Zimbabwe. And Dhoni was actually bowling to him in nets. MS was my roommate and I had played for India by then. I told him, 'he's your competitor. Don't bowl to him. At least do some batting even if you're bowling'!” Chopra said on JioCinema.

When advised by Chopra to not bowl to Karthik, Dhoni had an interesting reply. "He replied, 'see, Aakash bhai, I will bowl because I love bowling. If you want to bat, you can do that as well. Please don't tell me I shouldn't bowl'. He was so, so confident. Karthik was selected for the tour of England. We went to Kenya and he got a chance to play, and rest is history. Dhoni hit so many sixes, we were shocked. We knew, he was way ahead of his time,” Chopra added.

Karthik made his international debut against England in September 2004 while Dhoni made his debut against Bangladesh in December 2004. The former India captain scored a hundred in his fifth ODI against Pakistan at Visakhapatnam and announced his arrival in style.

From there on, he sealed his place in the side and scored runs across all formats. He was given the captaincy for the 2007 T20 World Cup and the youngster led the team to a historic triumph in the inaugural edition of the tournament.

Under his leadership, India also ended their 28-year-long wait for an ODI World Cup as they were crowned World Champions in 2011 at home, with Dhoni scoring a magnificent unbeaten 91 off 79 balls in the final against Sri Lanka at Wankhede Stadium.

Furthermore, he led another young bunch to the Champions Trophy triumph in 2013, becoming the only captain to have all ICC trophies in his cabinet. The wicketkeeper-batter has also led his IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings to four titles in the tournament, making them the second-most successful team behind Mumbai Indians.