Ruturaj Gaikwad has admitted that the bond that MS Dhoni and Faf du Plessis share is a very good one and both of them respect each other a lot.
Faf du Plessis made his IPL debut way back in 2012, and it was with Chennai Super Kings. In 2016 and 2017, du Plessis featured for Rising Pune Supergiant as CSK were banned for a couple of years. However, when the Yellow Army returned in 2018, they used the Right To Match card to retain du Plessis in their squad.
Thus, du Plessis has been around the IPL and CSK scene for a long time. He is an experienced cricketer and has successfully led South Africa across formats for a few years. Hence, it is no surprise that MS Dhoni approaches du Plessis for suggestions during practice and during the game. The same is the case vice-versa, and the South African are often seen talking to the CSK skipper.
“Their bond is very good because they both respect each other a lot. Often, they have discussions after the match where Faf reaches out to MS Dhoni with suggestions. Even at this stage [of their careers], they have very good discussions.
It’s not like they discuss for 5-10 minutes, their talks go for an hour or even 2 hours sometimes. They also have discussions every day in practice. A lot of times, even Mahi bhai reaches out to Faf during the match to ask for his advice,”
Ruturaj Gaikwad was quoted saying to India TV.
In 2021, the Kings had a fantastic run as they won five out of their first seven games before the tournament was suspended. Faf du Plessis, in particular, was in superb form, scoring 320 runs at an average of 64 and a strike-rate of 145.45.
