Former Chennai Super Kings batter Narayan Jagadeesan revealed MS Dhoni’s message in IPL 2023, a year after he left the franchise. The Tamil Nadu batter was part of the CSK squad from 2018 to 2022 but could only play seven games for the franchise.
In IPL 2023, Jagadeesan was picked up by Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL auction. However, the right-hander could only manage 89 runs in six games for KKR at an average of less than 15. After a disappointing run with KKR, Jagadeesan has gone unsold in the last few IPL auctions.
The 30-year-old revealed that MS Dhoni told him he would have re-picked him in IPL 2023 if nobody had roped him.
Jagadeesan said in an interview with Crictracker, “No one in particular. Nobody called me to tell me that I was going to be released. But the fun part about this is that I got picked for KKR the next year. After a game against CSK that year, it was Mahi bhai (Dhoni), who actually took me to the dressing room, and he sat with me and spoke with me for about 25 minutes. If nobody had picked you, I would’ve re-picked you in CSK, is what he told me.”
“He was explaining to me that we were going to release you because you’ve been with us for five years and we have given you a lot of opportunities. He also said that the idea behind releasing you was that I didn’t see a lot of opportunities coming your way. It was very heartwarming, coming from a guy like MS Dhoni. He took his time and told me about this. At that point, there was no communication before he sat with me and told me this.”
Jagadeesan admitted he would have liked a bit more backing in CSK when he was part of the franchise for almost five years.
“It would have been better if I had played a lot more than what I played in CSK. I genuinely felt I had a good debut of 33 runs against RCB, and the next game I was dropped. Then I was in and out, and the next season, I was dropped the entire year before I got a chance again. A bit more backing would have been better, no doubt about it,” said Jagadeesan on the same Crictracker interview.
Jagadeesan recently scored 323 runs in seven matches of TNPL 2026 at an average of 53.83 and a strike rate of 163.13, finishing as the third-highest run-scorer in the tournament.
