'If He Loses 20 Kg, I Will Pick Him In IPL': When MS Dhoni Asked Afghanistan Player To Lose Weight

MS Dhoni, a fitness freak himself, jokingly asked an Afghanistan player to lose weight for an IPL contract back in 2018.

MS Dhoni is a fitness freak. The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain has time and again made it clear how he keeps fitness as metric to judge players who will fit in the team. Even when Dhoni has been struggling with his performance with the bat, one can never question his fitness or his skills behind the stumps. This is the reason why even at 42, the Men in Yellow are still banking on their skipper to deliver the goods especially after he led them to a record-levelling five IPL titles in 2023.

And now former Pakistan captain Mohammad Asghar Afghan has shared a conversation he had after the epic tied encounter between India and Afghanistan in an ODI in Asia Cup in 2018. After the thrilling fixture at the Dubai International Stadium, Afghanistan players had the opportunity to interact with India's World Cup winning-skipper Dhoni and Asghar recalled a chat he had with the ace finisher post that game regarding his teammate Mohammad Shahzad.

"After the tied match, I had a long chat with MS Dhoni. He is a superb captain and a god's gift to Indian cricket. He is a nice human being. We spoke about Mohammad Shahzad a lot," Asghar told Times of India in an exclusive interview.

"I told Dhoni bhai that Shahzad is your big fan. Dhoni said Shahzad has got a big tummy and if he loses 20 kg, I will pick him in the IPL. But when Shahzad returned to Afghanistan after the series, he gained 5 more kgs (laughs)," he added.



Interestingly, this was Dhoni's last match as an international captain. While he had retired from Test matches in 2014 and then gave away ODI captaincy in 2017, he was at the helm of affairs for this one-off game against Afgahnsiatn in the absence of then captain Virat Kohli and stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma.