“As Of Now, You Don’t Walk Into My Playing XI”: Robin Uthappa Reveals “First Conversation” With MS Dhoni At Chennai Super Kings

Robin Uthappa wasn’t retained by Chennai Super Kings after the end of IPL 2021 as the franchise opted to keep Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali and Ruturaj Gaikwad. Although he wasn’t retained, Uthappa rejoined the franchise as he was bought for his base price of Rs 2 crore in the mega auction ahead of IPL 2022. Speaking to Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube channel, the wicketkeeper-batter shed light on the first conversation he had with Dhoni when he joined CSK from Rajasthan Royals in 2021. He stated that the former India captain told him that he would get his chance to play for the team but would need to work hard for it.

“When I came here, that was communicated to me – ‘When you get an opportunity, you will get 4 or 5 games for sure. But you have to wait for your opportunity.’ For me clarity and communication are very important. So for me, one of thing that I liked about that first conversation with MS was that he told me, ‘As of now, you don’t walk into my playing XI. We are two months away from IPL. We will see where it goes in the next couple of months. Because I am not thinking about it at this point in time’,” he said.

“Then when I came here, they told me, ‘Listen, you are in the top 12 or 13. But you might not get the first game. You might have to wait for your turn.’ I said, ‘Fair enough, that communication is there'”, he added.

In the ongoing season, Uthappa has registered 106 runs from four games for CSK and in IPL 2021, he scored 115 runs in four fixtures. Despite featuring in only four games, Uthappa played a prominent role for CSK in the final vs KKR. In their upcoming match, CSK face Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Tuesday.