'Kya sasta marker le kar aa gaya hai tu' - RCB player Saurav Chauhan recalls first meeting with MS Dhoni during IPL 2024

Saurav Chauhan made his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut this year as he played three matches for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). The Gujarat batter narrated a story of his first meeting with the legendary MS Dhoni on the sidelines of the cash-rich league.

Chauhan did nOt have to wait too long to meet Dhoni as RCB faced defending champions Chennai Super Kings in the season opener at Chepauk. During a recent interview, the 24-year-old revealed that he had inadvertently taken a malfunctioning marker to get Dhoni's autograph.

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"I wanted MS Dhoni's autograph on the back of my T-shirt. He asked me to bring a marker so that he could sign. I ran to take a marker, and there were two markers, one was open, one was closed. I was in a hurry, so I took the open one, which was not working, and I gave it to him," Chauhan said while speaking on Ishan Joshi's podcast.

Chauhan explained what transpired after Dhoni found out that the marker wasn't working. The Ahmedabad-born said that when he went to fetch another marker, Dhoni himself got hold of one and gave him his autograph.

"He tried to sign with that marker, but it did not work. So, he said, 'Kya sasta marker le kar aa gaya hai tu yaha pe, chal bhi nahi raha.' (From where did you get this cheap marker? It's not even working.) Then, before I left to change the marker, Dhoni himself went to take the other marker and gave me his autograph," Chauhan said.

I waited for 15 to 20 minutes to meet him: Saurav Chauhan

The southpaw recalled that he had waited for around 20 minutes to meet the former India captain. Chauhan highlighted Dhoni's humble demeanour and said that he had received batting tips from the iconic wicketkeeper-batter.

"I waited for 15 to 20 minutes to meet him. Actually, he had gone inside, and I was waiting outside with some other RCB youngsters. So, we told the officials we want to click pictures with him. We were told to wait for 10 minutes because he was busy," Chauhan said.

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"Then, we went inside and spoke with him. At that time, it did not feel like I was talking to MS Dhoni. He was so humble. I took some batting tips from him," he added.

Chauhan did not have a great time in IPL 2024 as he scored just 18 runs from three innings. However, he has a reputation of being a clean striker for his state side, boasting a strike rate of 150.62 in T20s and 116.95 in List A cricket.