Former India batsman Aakash Chopra recently revealed an untold story about legendary wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni. The 42-year-old is undoubtedly one of the best captains India has ever had. Under his leadership, India bagged the 2007 T20 World Cup trophy, the 2011 ODI World Cup title and also the Champions Trophy in 2013. Battling against all odds, Dhoni, who ended his international career in 2020, is still going strong for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL. However, his participation in the 2025 edition is still uncertain.
Dhoni made his international debut in 2004. Chopra, who is now a renowned cricket commentator, appeared on a podcast, where he narrated the story of sharing a room with Dhoni.
“MS and I have a very strange relationship. In 2004, there was an India A tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya. By then, I had already played for India. There was a camp in Bangalore. When I reached the hotel, I was told that Mahendra Singh Dhoni was my roommate. I asked, 'Where does he come from?' I was told he was from Ranchi. I had only heard of him once. I actually saw him play in a domestic match, in the Deodhar Trophy, where he scored a lot of runs. But that was it, I never spoke to him at that time. And then we were in Bengaluru, where we shared a room for a month, and that was a different Dhoni,” Chopra told Raj Shamani on his YouTube channel.
“His phone rang a lot, but he never answered. When I asked him what time he was going to sleep, because we had to calculate the time, he would say, 'When you feel comfortable, you can turn off the lights. ' Also, he was not a vegetarian and I was, so we were not a good match. So when I asked him what he wanted to eat, he would say, 'Whatever you feel like. ' He never called for room service. He was too shy. For a whole month, he ate vegetarian food,” she added.
Chopra praised Dhoni for his dedication to cricket. He revealed how Dhoni used to bowl to former batsman and wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik in the nets during practice sessions. But, when it came time to bat in the match, Dhoni played shots that Chopra had never seen before.
“So that was a very different Dhoni – carefree but not careless. Carefree because he was very confident and happy with where he was, and not carefree because when he got a chance, in Kenya and not Zimbabwe, he batted like a man possessed. Before him, I never saw a batsman do a reverse sweep against a bowler. There was a Pakistani bowler called Iftikhar Anjum, who used to bowl at over 140 km/h and was already playing for his country… Dhoni hit him for a four at the fine leg region. The bowler changed fields, sent the fielder back from the fine leg region and called for one at third man, but Dhoni smashed the next ball for a six over the third man region,” Chopra said.
“I was thinking, 'Who is this guy? ' He never used to bat in the nets. In fact, he used to bowl to Dinesh Karthik, his competitor. He wasn't getting a chance to play, but he wanted to keep participating. I said, 'Why are you bowling to Karthik? Why aren't you batting? If he keeps batting and scoring everything, when will you bat? ' But he said, 'No, I just want to bowl because I'm enjoying it. ' He's just talented. In fact, he doesn't practice keeping the ball much, but his hands are faster than anyone else in the world, even now,” he added.
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