Over the years, the cricket fraternity has been told millions of stories about the greatness of MS Dhoni and his talent, of how he led India to three ICC trophy wins and secured five IPL titles for Chennai Super Kings. Most of those stories resurface on social media, with fans hailing the former India captain time and again. Yet the world often comes about an unheard tale of the 43-year-old, with ex-India cricketer Aakash Chopra, on Saturday, recalling the time before his former roommate Dhoni made India debut.

Speaking to Raj Shamani on his YouTube show, Aakash walked down memory lane to 2004. He had already played for India by then, having made his international debut in the Test format in 2003 against New Zealand at home. The former India opener, who represented the country in 10 international matches, was picked for an India A tour in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Ahead of the series, the players assembled in Bengaluru for a month-long camp, which is where he met Dhoni, who also was his roommate.

Aakash revealed that while he had already seen Dhoni in action once before in a Deodhar Trophy game, he had never met him in person until that Indian camp in Bengaluru

“MS and I go back in a very strange way. In 2004, there was an India A tour in Zimbabwe and Kenya. I had already played for India by then. 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 that he was from Ranchi. I only heard of him once. I actually saw him playing at some domestic game, in the Deodhar Trophy, where he scored lots of runs. But that was it, I never talked to him then. And then we were in Bengaluru, where we were roommates for a month, and that was a different Dhoni,” he said.

‘Dhoni was carefree, but not careless’

The 46-year-old's first impression of Dhoni, who later went on to become one of India's greatest players and arguably the best-ever wicketkeeper-batter in cricket history, was that he was “very shy.” He recalled that Dhoni never called for room service during the one-month period and hence settled for eating vegetarian dishes, despite being a non-vegetarian.

“His phone used to ring a lot, but he never answered it. When I asked him what time he goes to sleep, because we had to figure the time, and he said, 'Whenever you are comfortable, you can switch off the lights.' Moreover, he was non-vegetarian and I was vegetarian, so it was not a great partnership. So when I asked him what he wanted to eat, he said, 'Whatever you feel like eating.' He never used to call for room service. He was just too shy. For one whole month he ate vegetarian food,” Aakash said.

However, the cricketer-turned-commentator admitted that Dhoni was “carefree, and not careless,” as he recalled one of his knocks during the India A game in Kenya, where he smashed a reverse sweep against a Pakistan bowler named Iftikhar Anjum. And, that was beyond imagination for Aakash, who noted that Dhoni would rarely bat at the nets and rather bowl to fellow players, including his competitor and fellow wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik, which left him worried about his India hopes.

“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 careless because when he got an opportunity, in Kenya and not in Zimbabwe, he batted like a man possessed. Before him, I never saw a batter hit a reverse sweep against a bowler. There was a Pakistan bowler named Iftikhar Anjum, who used to bowl at 140+kmph and already played for his country...Dhoni hit him for a four at fine leg. The bowler changed his field, sent back the fine leg fielder and called in the one at third man, but Dhoni smashed the next ball for a six over the third man region. I was like, 'Who is this guy?' He never used to bat in the nets. He, in fact, used to bowl to Dinesh Karthik, his competitor. He wasn't getting the opportunity to play, but he wanted to keep himself involved. I told him, 'Why are you bowling to Karthik? Why aren't you batting? If he keeps batting and does all the scoring, when will you bat?' But he replied saying, 'No, I just want to bowl because I'm enjoying it.' He is just talented. In fact, he does not practice keeping that much, but his hands are faster than anyone in the world even now,” he added.

It was that very year, in the month of December, when Dhoni made his international debut for India in the ODI match against Bangladesh in Chattogram. He earned his Test cap exactly a year later and T20I debut a year after that. And the rest, as they say, is history.

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