"He sat on the floor"- Faiz Fazal recalls incident on India duty involving 'humble' MS Dhoni
Former Indian cricketer Faiz Fazal was awestruck with the humility shown by legendary former captain MS Dhoni when the two were teammates for the Men in Blue during India's tour of Zimbabwe in 2016.
Fazal recalled an anecdote where Dhoni offered his seat to the youngsters in the lounge and sat on the floor. The southpaw was stunned to see just how down-to-earth Dhoni was despite everything the latter had achieved in his career.
Speaking to CricketNext, here's what Faiz Fazal had to say about Dhoni:
"MS Dhoni is so humble, down to earth and he doesn’t make you feel that he is 'MS DHONI'. I will share an experience with you. We were returning from Harare and sitting in the lounge. MS came in and all of us offered him our seat. He just said 'nahi nahi tum log betho (you have a seat)' and he sat on the floor. He is a legend and he makes you very comfortable."
Faiz Fazal also received his maiden India cap from Dhoni during the same tour and here's what he had to say about his emotions:
"The cherry on the cake was that I got the cap from MS Dhoni. Moreover, we won that match and I struck an unbeaten 55. I was happy that I made some contribution for the team. I think everything is written in your destiny. In a population of 1.5 billion people, if you get a chance to represent the country, that’s just amazing."
Fazal didn't play another game for India despite scoring 55* in his only international appearance. He retired from professional cricket after Vidarbha's final Ranji Trophy 2023/24 group game against Jammu and Kashmir.
Faiz Fazal on batting alongside KL Rahul
In his only ODI for India, Faiz Fazal had a fantastic opening partnership of 126 runs with a young KL Rahul and the duo ensured the visitors beat Zimbabwe with all ten wickets in hand.
Here's what Fazal had to say about Rahul:
"KL Rahul is a very good partner to bat with. We were very chilled at that point of time. When we won the game, I got a lot of appreciation from all around."
While Fazal played just one game for India, he took pride in the fact that he was the only player from that ODI squad touring Zimbabwe who didn't have an IPL contract. He has played 138 first-class games, 113 List A matches and 66 T20s.