The young Indian fast bowler Deepak Chahar’s international career has seemingly taken off quite well in recent times. After piling up the wickets in the IPL for both the Rising Pune Supergiants and the Chennai Super Kings, the call-up for the national squad become a guarantee for him as he was deployed in the T20Is against England.

However, speaking about his first step towards cricket, Chahar stated that the first time he took to playing cricket was when he met Sachin Tendulkar. Recalling the experience, the 25-year old went on to state that he was chosen as one of the net bowlers and continued bowling and throwing-down to the Master Blaster.

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In his column, Deepak wrote, “When I started playing cricket, Sachin Tendulkar was someone we looked up to. Just like every other young cricketer, I also took up the game seriously only after watching Sachin paaji. And even today, he remains my inspiration. He had come for a game in Jaipur in 2005 and I was selected as one of the net bowlers. Before hitting the nets, I gave him a few throw-downs and he was very humble. Never did he make us realize that we were actually bowling to someone like Sachin Tendulkar.”

Chahar also became one of the most crucial bowlers for MS Dhoni in the CSK’s comeback season of 2018 when they lifted the IPL trophy. He went on to describe the first instance he had an encounter with MS during an injury rehab during his brief stint with the Rising Pune Supergiant franchise.

Deepak also illustrated his first meeting with Dhoni, he said, “I also have had the opportunity of knowing Mahendra Singh Dhoni from close quarters. I met him for the first time in 2017 at the Rising Pune Supergiant camp. It was during a practice game that I first met Dhoni bhai. I was batting when he came to the ground and unfortunately I picked up an injury on that very day. He walked up to me and inquired about the injury and also advised me on how to deal with injury. That really touched me.”