• Suresh Raina had played under MS Dhoni’s leadership at both IPL and international levels.

  • Raina revealed Captain Cool’s never seen before avatar on a show.

‘He punched his helmet’: Suresh Raina recalls MS Dhoni’s outrageous avatar during an IPL match
Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni (Image Source: Twitter)

India’s legendary cricketer MS Dhoni is known for his calm behaviour even in the toughest of situations and hence has been given the tag of ‘Captain Cool’. However, one of the players to see Dhoni very closely over the years and his former teammate Suresh Raina recently revealed an incident where Dhoni lost his cool.

Notably, both Dhoni and Raina have played together for over a decade in the Indian Premier League (IPL) under Chennai Super Kings (CSK) franchise, and their friendship is regarded as the best in the cricket fraternity. The duo won four titles for CSK in IPL and was also part of India’s iconic 2011 ODI World Cup triumph.

In a show named ‘My Time with Dhoni’ on Jio Cinema, Raina recalled an incident during a 2010 IPL match against Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) where Dhoni lost his cool and was spotted punching his helmet.

“He clubbed a big one over long-on, and then punched his helmet. I have never seen him do this in any match or any situation. Everyone knew him as Captain Cool, but the energy he showed was because of the match situation,” said Raina.

In the game against the Mohali-based team, Dhoni scored a match-winning 54 off 29 balls and sailed his team to the semi-finals. CSK eventually turned out to be the champions of the same edition.

The Uttar Pradesh cricketer further shed light on Dhoni’s love and passion for vintage cars as well.

“We all know how many bikes he has and how he personally fine-tunes them, but he has extended this passion for vintage cars. He has become a collector,” added Raina.

Raina also revealed how the Jharkhand cricketer gets involved in video games and stated: “Whenever we would ask him to go for dinner, he would inevitably play a game and delay our meals by 10-15 mins because he was intensely involved in the game.”

While Raina retired from the world’s richest cricket league last year, Dhoni will be seen leading CSK in IPL 2023, where he starts his campaign against defending Champion Gujarat Titans (GT) on April 1 in the first match of the marquee event at the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium.

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About the Author:
Vishwanath Hariharan is Content Strategist at CricketTimes.com. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. From breaking news stories to in-depth features and opinion pieces, he has covered a wide range of topics. Vishwanath is very fond of watching cricket. Like many others, he too grew up watching, playing, and imitating his favourite players of the game. MS Dhoni is like a demigod to him. You can connect with him at vishwanath.hariharan@crickettimes.com and follow him on Twitter & Linkedin.