'I Picked You Because You Can Hit The Ball Miles Away'; Thisara Perera Recalls Dhoni's 'Special Words'

Even though Dhoni has taken the IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings to be one of the most successful franchises in the world, but CSK isn't the only team MS Dhoni has captained in the IPL. When Chennai was banned from IPL in 2016 & 2017, 'Captain Cool' was handed the reigns of Rising Pune Supergiants. 

Mahendra Singh Dhoni led the Rising Pune Supergiants and Sri Lanka's explosive all-rounder Thisara Perera was a part of the RPS squad. Perea has unveiled a 'special' incident with Dhoni back in the days. The Sri Lankan reminisced a partnership with the former Indian captain when RPS was at 35/5 in a match.

In a conversation with News9, Thisara Perera said, "I remember a special incident with MS Dhoni for Rising Pune Supergiants, in 2016, and that is where I felt that Dhoni is like my brother. In one of the matches, we were 35-5, and I came down to bat. MS was the non-striker."

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"He walked up to me and said, 'Hi, TP. Let's just bat'. I defended my first ball and he comes to me knocking the pitch - 'Hey, TP. What are you doing?' I said, 'I am just watching the ball.' The reply from him was very special, something which I didn't expect with the sort of scorecard we were having at that time. 'No, no. I picked you because you can hit the ball miles away. Go explode'."