"Sometimes when I did forward defense, MS Dhoni would come and say 'TP, what are you doing?'"- Perera explains why MSD is his 'best' captain

Sri Lankan Lions captain Thisara Perera recently looked back at his IPL career and shared a story about MS Dhoni. The Sri Lankan star had played under Dhoni's captaincy for two teams, namely Chennai Super Kings and Rising Pune Supergiant.

In an exclusive chat with Sportskeeda on the sidelines of Asian Legends League 2025 in Nathdwara, Thisara Perera said that he played under many captains, but MS Dhoni was the best. Perera shared the details of an incident involving Dhoni from his IPL career to prove his point.

Perera played under Dhoni's captaincy for CSK in 2010 and then for RPS in 2016. Dhoni always urged the southpaw to stick to his natural game of big shots no matter what the situation of the match was.

"Sometimes when I did forward defense, MS Dhoni would come and say 'TP, what are you doing? You are genuine power-hitter. Don't do this. Go for every ball.' Those kind of words really builds up the confidence of the youngsters. So that time I was 20 years old. For the cricket culture, it is very young. I loved to work with him," Perera said.

"I remember one incident. It was from a match for Rising Pune Supergiant. We lost four or five early wickets. When I came out, I was confused whether to bat aggressively or look for singles. So I did my routine forward defense. MS came to me and said, 'TP, what are you doing?' I said we have lost wickets. He said, 'Go for every ball'. End of the day, we were 60/5 and we finished with 190/7. I scored 40 and MS scored 80 or 90 something," he continued.

Perera said that he still remembers Dhoni's words wherever he plays cricket. Even in Asian Legends League, he motivates himself by remembering those conversations with the CSK legend.

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"Personally, my best captain in the world" - Thisara Perera on MS Dhoni

Lastly, Thisara labeled Dhoni as his best captain in the world. He has played for 40+ franchises across the world, but he enjoyed the most under MS Dhoni.

"Personally, my best captain in the world. I played for Chennai Super Kings and Rising Pune Supergiant under him. He gave me lot of confidence as a power-hitter. He always trusted me," Perera concluded.

It will be interesting to see if Thisara Perera can lead the Sri Lankan Lions team to a title victory in the Asian Legends League.