The new CSK signing Rajvardhan Hangargekar, who caught the eyes of one and all in the recently finished T20 World Cup, is very excited about playing for the defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the upcoming IPL season and has revealed that he has been a massive fan of the CSK captain MS Dhoni since his childhood days.
Two top IPL teams, CSK and Mumbai Indians, placed bids for Hangargekar when his name came up for sale in the IPL mega auction and eventually it was CSK who bought him at a price of 1.5 crore INR which is a significant sum of money for an U19 player.
Hangargekar has seen a lot of hardships in life in the last couple of years as he lost his father during the COVID pandemic, but rather than staying down for a long time, the young man gathered himself and put all his energy into his cricket.
During the Challenger trophy ahead of the U19 World Cup, Hangargekar impressed the selectors and found a spot in India’s U19 World Cup team. He made a mark with both bat and ball for India in the World Cup, as he bowled with a lot of pace up front and then hit the ball a long way while batting down the order.
My father was also a big admirer of Dhoni: Rajvardhan Hangargekar
Talking about MS Dhoni, while being in a conversation with Rupha Ramani on Revsportz, Rajvardhan Hangargekar said that not only him, but his father was also a big admirer of Dhoni’s composure in pressure situations and he would have been extremely happy today if he had seen that his son was picked to play under the captaincy of Dhoni.
Hangargekar revealed that when he was a kid, he used to watch every single game of Dhoni and didn’t miss even one game in which the former Indian captain featured. The bowling allrounder, who is a very powerful six-hitter, is looking forward to learn a lot from Dhoni, as he gets to meet the CSK skipper in a few weeks’ time.
His childhood dream has been to play under @msdhoni . Rajvardhan Hangargekar shares his excitement on being picked by @ChennaiIPL to @RuphaRamani @OfficialFanatic @pumacricket @ThumsUpOfficial pic.twitter.com/mwLOz4IA6u
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) February 14, 2022
With Shardul Thakur not there in the CSK squad this year, Hangargekar has a chance to make it into CSK’s playing XI straightaway as the second Indian fast bowler along with Deepak Chahar. The allrounder Dwayne Bravo and one out of Chris Jordan and Adam Milne will most probably form the rest of the CSK’s pace attack.
