Former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni retired from his international cricket career in August 2020. Since then, he has been available only for the Indian Premier League, playing for Chennai Super Kings. This means that Dhoni’s fans have to wait for around ten months to see their favourite player in action. But, despite the lack of appearance among fans in the past three-four years, Dhoni's craze has only increased with the passage of time.
Dhoni made his IPL debut in 2008. It has been 16 years since then. Now, at 42, Dhoni still remains favourite player at IPL 2024. His popularity has not diminished a bit despite not being a Chennai Super Kings skipper.
The legendary wicket-keeper has been grabbing the limelight during the course of the season, as even opposition fans have been chanting his name and cheering for him during the matches. Dhoni’s massive fan-base makes every match in the IPL feel like a home game for his franchise, Chennai Super Kings.
The craze for him is almost unmatched. The study of the official TV broadcaster for IPL 2024 too backs this opinion with some unique data.
Star Sports came up with the technology of calculating the crowd's noise levels at different junctures during the course of this edition of IPL and Dhoni holds the top two spots.
As per the data, the top noise from the crowd was 130 decibel which was attainted during Dhoni's entry into the MA Chidambaram Stadium before the toss for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Chennai Super Kings match, which happened to be the opening game of IPL 2024.
At the joint-second spot in the list is the moment when Dhoni smashed a four against Delhi Capitals in the 17th over at Visakhapatnam. The crowd's noise peaked in the game at that moment with a record of 128 decibel. Coming in at the 8th position in the match, it was the first time Dhoni batted in IPL 2024.
Dhoni scored four boundaries and three sixes in his unbeaten 16-ball 37. But, despite the effort from Dhoni, CSK lost the match by 20 runs.
Dhoni has played similar cameo innings even in other matches in this edition of IPL against Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants much to the delight of his fans.
Many social media users have flooded the comment box with ‘Thala for reason’ a phrase widely used by Dhoni’s fan-base. The phrase has become a major fuel for meme trend every now and then. The ‘Thala for a reason’ trend is a testimony of Mahendra Singh Dhoni's charm and his iconic jersey number 7. Dhoni's affection for number 7 is not just because of his luck, but a reflection of his birthdate, July 7, a number which has been important for him.
