Indian leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal on Sunday revealed that the Indian cricket team leaves a corner seat exclusively reserved for former Indian skipper MS Dhoni and admitted that the team misses him dearly. Chahal said this on Chahal TV during the team's bus ride on Sunday to Hamilton for the third T20I against New Zealand in the five-game series.
"There is this one player who has never been on Chahal TV. He wanted to come a couple of times, and had even requested me a few times. But I said, 'not now'," started of Chahal before he pointed towards the seat where Dhoni usually sits in the team bus - the last row, corner seat. "No one sits here. We miss him a lot."
Indian fans have indeed missed Dhoni. The veteran cricketer last played for India in World Cup 2019 semis. Since then, India featured in nine limited-overs series, but Dhoni featured in none.
Chahal, on Team India's journey from Auckland to Hamilton, talked to quite a few players on Chahal TV. Jasprit Bumrah mentioned that he has been enjoying his first visit to the country before joking that Chahal never calls him up for having dinner together. Chahal then talked to Rishabh Pant, who said that the team atmosphere is positive after India's winning start in the tour. Meanwhile, Mohammed Shami revealed that he had first toured the country in 2012. And, KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav described journey around New Zealand.
Well, the team atmosphere is indeed positive. India won the first two matches of the five-game T20I series, both coming in Auckland and both while chasing. In the opener, India chased down a massive 204 inside 19 overs, while the second game was a low-scoring affair. But Rahul, skipper Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer has been the stars with the bat while Bumrah, as usual, did his magic with the ball.
