IPL 2020: Sai Kishore looking to learn from ‘legend’ MS Dhoni in the CSK camp

R Sai Kishore is pretty excited to share the dressing room with ‘legend’ MS Dhoni in the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The Indian Premier League (IPL) auction on December 19 turned out to be an eventful one for the left-arm spinner. To start with, he remained unsold at a base price as low as INR 20 lakhs. However, the Super Kings came to his rescue and rewarded him with an IPL contract.

Prior to the auction, CSK retained the core of their team and hence, wasn’t the most active team in the auction. The Yellow Army brought only four players, one of whom was Kishore. About introducing himself to Dhoni and rubbing shoulders with him, Kishore don’t wish to clutter his mind. But the tweaker is eyeing to pick the brains to the enigmatic wicketkeeper from Ranchi.

Kishore aims to learn from Dhoni

“No, I don’t know how it will unfold. It feels pretty special but I haven’t given much thought about it. I guess I’ll get to learn something from my CSK captain as he’s a legend,” Kishore was quoted as saying in an exclusive interview with My Khel.

Apart from Kishore, CSK roped in Piyush Chawla at INR 6.75 crores, Sam Curran for INR 5.5 crores and Jos Hazlewood for INR 2 crore. After the auction, Dhoni and Co have eight overseas names and 26 Indian players in their repertoire. They were left with the lowest purse of INR 0.15 crore.

As far as Sai Kishore is concerned, he was the leading wicket-taker in the 2019-20 edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy. The 23-year-old left-arm spinner churned out 20 wickets in 12 matches at an economy of 4.63, numbers which aren’t meek by any stretch of the imagination.

He also had a few decent seasons in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL), a tournament that helped him break into the state team. The wily Kishore has plied his trade in 11 first-class, 20 List A and 22 T20s in which he has picked up 31, 42 and 25 wickets respectively. In T20s, Kishore has an economy of 5.45 and he is expected to be a handful on a slow and low Chepauk strip.