Sourav Ganguly in 2004 told me that MS Dhoni is going to be a superstar, recalls Joy Bhattacharya

On his debut for India, against Bangladesh in 2004, India's former captain MS Dhoni had scored a duck as he was run out in the 1st ODI in Chattogram. The series, that India eventually won 2-0, was forgettable for Dhoni who only managed to score 0, 12, and 7. However, while flying to Bangladesh for the three-match ODI series, Sourav Ganguly had told Joy Bhattacharya about Dhoni being a great find for Team India.

According to Bhattacharya, in the 22 Yarns podcast of Oaktree Sports hosted by Gaurav Kapur on Spotify and Youtube, Ganguly had told him that India had found a future superstar in the form of Dhoni. The 39-year-old, later, went to lift the 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 World Cup as a captain for India. 

"I remember being on a flight to Bangladesh in 2004 and Sourav was just telling me 'we have this chabuk new batsman'. 'Chabuk' means whipped. He said 'chabuk new batsman' who has come out. You have to see him, MS Dhoni is going to be a star,'" said Bhattacharya.

After the forgettable Bangladesh tour, Dhoni scored a career-changing 148 off just 123 against Pakistan at home. 

"One thing he was just fantastic at was that he would just see you and he would know the talent. If you have the talent, he would back you. It didn't mean that you could not get runs, you could fail, it didn't matter to him. Because he knew on the day you had the ability to score,” he added.