Dream for me to be around MS Dhoni: Sanju Samson

Mumbai, Mar 12: Ahead of the Indian Premier League 2025, Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Sanju Samson described how much he values spending time with former India and Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni.

Dhoni will be playing in the 2025 IPL season for Chennai Super Kings (CSK), chasing his sixth title. Under the leadership of Ruturaj Gaikwad. CSK will start off their campaign against five-time champions and arch-rivals Mumbai Indians (MI) at their home ground of Chepauk.

"Like every young Indian cricketer, I always wanted to be around MS Dhoni. Every time we played against CSK, I wanted to sit and talk to him, ask him how he does things.

It was a dream for me. I remember playing a match against CSK in Sharjah, where I finally performed well, scored around 70-80 runs, won the game, and became the Man of the Match. After that, I met Mahi bhai, and since then, our relationship has grown. Even now, I meet him often. Just yesterday, I met him again. It's truly a blessed feeling—to go from idolising him to now sitting with him for shoots and events. I feel like I'm living my dream," Samson said while speaking on JioHotstar as a part of the 'SuperStar' program.

Ahead of the 2025 season, Dhoni was retained as an uncapped player by CSK at Rs 4 crore. IPL had introduced a new rule ahead of last year's auction, allowing franchises to retain players in the uncapped category if they have not played international cricket for five years.

Since his retirement from international cricket in 2020, Dhoni has only appeared in the IPL. In the 2024 season, he scored 161 runs at a strike rate of 220 and an average of 53.66 after 11 innings, staying unbeaten eight times and fulfilling the role of a finisher for the five-time champions.

Dhoni is the sixth-highest run-getter in IPL history, with 5,243 runs in 264 matches and 229 innings at an average of 39.12, a strike rate of 137.53, and 24 fifties. His best score is 84*. Other than CSK, he also played for Rising Pune Supergiant (RPG), a now-defunct franchise, from 2016 to 2017.