Ravichandran Ashwin thanks MS Dhoni for an unexpected gift

Ahead of the IPL 2025, Ravichandran Ashwin, one of the established spinners in the game praised former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain MS Dhoni for bringing him back to the franchise.

During a book launch event of CSK`s book “Leo- The Untold Story of Chennai Super Kings”, Ravichandran Ashwin expressed gratitude towards Dhoni. Taking to X, the veteran spinner said, “I invited MS for my 100th Test to hand over the memento. I wanted to make that my last Test. Unfortunately, he couldn`t come, but I didn`t think you`d hand one the gift of getting me back to CSK. It`s a much better one, so than you MS.”

“I called Dhoni for my 100th Test. I invited him to hand over memento in Dharamshala. I wanted to make that my last Test, but he couldn’t make it. What I didn’t expect was that he would give me an even better gift — bringing me back to CSK.” @ashwinravi99 #CSK #chennaisuperkings pic.twitter.com/IWJXJa0eqC

— Santhosh Kumar (@giffy6ty) March 16, 2025

So far, Ravichandran Ashwin has featured in 212 IPL matches. He has 180 scalps registered under his name and his career-best bowling figures are four wickets for 34 runs.

Also Read: In Photos: Team India`s captain Rohit Sharma spends family time in Maldives

In IPL history, Ashwin has been a part of five IPL franchises, namely, CSK, Delhi Capitals, Kings XI Punjab, Rising Pune Supergiants and Rajasthan Royals.

Over the years, fans have witnessed the great bonding shared between Ravichandran Ashwin and MS Dhoni.

Chennai Super Kings will start their IPL 2025 campaign with a match against Mumbai Indians (MI) on March 23.

Under Ruturaj Gaikwad`s captaincy, CSK won seven matches and suffered as many losses in the last edition of the league. They finished fifth on the league`s table with a net run rate of +0.391 and 14 points.

Ahead of their first IPL 2025 match, it will be interesting to see if CSK gets the upper hand against MI as the “Paltan” will likely miss the services of their lead pacer, Jasprit Bumrah.

The pacer has been recovering from an injury that he sustained since the last match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.