Ahead of the IPL 2023, star India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has revealed his interesting conversation with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, while recalling the start of his cricketing journey when he used to love being a fast bowler.
After being out of action for several months due to knee surgery, Jadeja has made a successful return to international cricket. He played a crucial role in India's 2-1 win in the four-Test against Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2022-23 as well as in the first ODI against the same opposition.
The all-rounder will be vital for CSK's success in IPL 2023, beginning on March 31.
Glimpses of this content were provided during Star Sports' preview to Tata IPL 2023 called "Stars on Star". During the preview show, Chennai Super Kings' all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja revealed that he initially wanted to be a pacer,
"When I started playing cricket long back, I used to love being a fast bowler. I used to love seeing other fast bowlers bowling bouncers. Watching them, even I used to think that I would also bowl bouncers to batters, but I didn't have the speed to be a fast bowler," said Jadeja on Star Sports' preview show for IPL 2023 called "Stars on Star".
"I told this to Mahi bhai, that my cricketing journey has been between Mahendra Singh Chauhan, my coach in Jamnagar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, my captain at CSK. My cricketing journey has really been between these two Mahendras," he added.
In the same preview show, Rohit Sharma, who is about to complete 10 years of captaincy for Mumbai Indians, recalled the bid he received during the inaugural IPL auction.
"Firstly, I didn't even know how much $750,000 is. A thing like the auction had never happened to us before and nobody even heard of it. My number came very late in the auction, probably after one and a half hours. After I was sold, I was told that I was getting $750,000, I think it was 3 to 3.5 crore. But I was really happy and thought about which car I should buy. That was the planning I was doing. I was only 20 years old at that time," Rohit was quoted as saying in a media release.
Both Jadeja and Rohit along with Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul are part of Star Sports' (Tv broadcasting rights holder) "Shor On, Game On" campaign, promoting community viewing experiencing IPL together on a big screen. The TV broadcasters of IPL have recently unveiled another promo featuring Kohli.