Shreyas Gopal, who leads the Mangalore Dragons in the Maharaja Trophy 2025, praised Dhoni’s man-management talents and ability to bring out the best in his players. This season in the IPL, the leg-spinner played.
The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and had the opportunity to share the dressing room alongside Dhoni.
MS Dhoni has inspired billions of people during his remarkable career, and the number continues to climb each year as he lights up the Indian Premier League (IPL) with his unrivalled charm. Throughout his career, he has established himself as a superb wicketkeeper-batsman and outstanding leader. He has won more International Cricket Council titles than any previous Indian captain.
The 31-year-old described how difficult it is to be in Dhoni’s shoes and praised him for maintaining a humble demeanour despite his incredible achievements. Gopal also claimed that he learnt captaincy and the skill of finishing, among other things, from the former India captain.
“It’s very hard to be MS Dhoni; it’s extremely hard. People think that it’s very easy to be MS Dhoni. There is a lot of fame and people shout [cheer], but to be him, to be so grounded and to be so humble and to be so empathetic, caring is very hard. And you also understand that he’s also a human being. He loves doing very simple and basic things, and that is his greatness,” Gopal told SportsYaari’s YouTube channel.
“Mainly, it’s basically how to handle a player, how to put a player in a tournament, who to use for the specific over, tactically, there have been so many talks with him. And there’s no one better than him; everyone knows that. So, learning captaincy, learning how to finish matches, just learning how to, the way he deals with his stardom,” he added.
The more he plays the game, the more it’s beneficial for cricket: Shreyas Gopal
While Gopal didn’t get a game in IPL 2025 for CSK, he doesn’t want to leave the franchise ahead of next season. He said that he wants to spend time as much time as possible around Dhoni as he feels that picking the stalwart’s brain could help him improve as a cricketer.
“To play with Dhoni was a dream for many of us, billions of us maybe. So, I got that chance last year, and I would love to continue that for another few more years. The more he plays the game, the more it’s beneficial for cricket. And the discussions that we have with him in the dressing room, the inputs we get, it’s just priceless. So, I think I’m extremely grateful to be playing for CSK and playing with and under him” he said.
India
