If Mahendra Singh Dhoni feels at home in Delhi while leading the Chennai Super Kings against the Daredevils on Thursday evening, he will have good reason to. The Indian one-day skipper, who hails from Ranchi, considers himself as much a Delhiite as any player in Virender Sehwag’s unit and is very nostalgic about the connection the city has to his rapid rise as a cricketer.

Former India paceman Vivek Razdan remembers the “under-22 ka ladka” he met at Bhagalpur while playing a tournament. Struggling to find a proper wicket-keeper for his National Sports Cricket Club (NSCC) team, he was introuduced to Dhoni by Bihar skipper Mohammad Tariq.

On a wicket where the ball wasn’t bouncing too much, Razdan says, Dhoni put his hand up to open the innings and stroked his way to a stunning 123. After that, Dhoni became a regular at the National Stadium — fine-tuning his skills and playing tournaments during the off-season.

NIS coach MP Singh says Dhoni is very particular about visiting the National Stadium nets whenever he’s in Delhi. This time, however, the India one-day skipper would be greeted by renovation being undertaken for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. “Once when he was going through a lean patch after breaking into the national team, Dhoni cancelled his Diwali trip back home, and came to the National Stadium nets every day for practice,” he says, adding: “Not only that, Dhoni has helped a lot of trainees in several ways.”

Singh gives an example of Dhoni’s simplicity. “He came with us to play a tournament in Gwalior after he became an India player. The organiser had given him a separate car, but Dhoni refused, saying ‘India player hu toh kya hua, mein team ke saath hi jaaonga’ (so what if I’m an India player, I’ll go with the team).”

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