IPL 2025: Dhoni 7-year-old fan now the captain of opposing team, do you know him?
IPL 2025: Mahendra Singh Dhoni has cricket fans all over the world. His popularity has spread from the era of long hair to spikes and then today to the animal look. The decisions taken under his captaincy, tremendous agility behind the wicket and all the major ICC trophies increased his fame. He has also received a lot of love from the fans for this. Dhoni entered the Indian national team in 2004, when many of today's IPL stars were not even born.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni's popularity is spread all over the world due to his cricketing talent, captaincy.
Now look at Vaibhav Suryavanshi, he is 14 years old today, when Dhoni's cricket career has completed 21 years. Well, the child seen in this photo is the captain of the IPL team today and this little boy who once got photographed with him will now face the same Dhoni's team.
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7-year-old fan of Dhoni is now the captain of the opposing team
This little boy is none other than Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Riyan Parag. The 11th match of IPL 2025 between Royals and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) (CSK vs RR) will be played on Sunday 30 March at Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati. This match holds special significance for RR's acting captain Riyan Parag, as it is his home ground.
Before the match, Rajasthan Royals shared an emotional video, which included two pictures of 20-year-old Parag and 43-year-old MS Dhoni.
Idol to Opponent. God’s plan 💗👌 pic.twitter.com/snIw8nTHyg
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) March 30, 2025
11th match of IPL 2025 between Royals and Chennai Super Kings
Riyan hails from Assam, when he was 7 years old, Dhoni went to Guwahati to attend a match. This picture was taken at the same time. Dhoni and Riyan Parag.
Rajasthan Royals captioned the video, "From Idol to Rival - God's Plan." The first picture in the video was from his childhood, when Parag got a chance to pose with his idol Dhoni, while the second picture was taken during the IPL.
From Idol to Rival - God's Plan
Further in this video, Dhoni's T-shirt is also shown along with Riyan Parag's T-shirt. This match will be special for the right-handed batsman Parag, as he will be seen captaining against his idol's team. MS Dhoni with Riyan Parag.
Parag has captained Rajasthan in two matches this season so far, but the team had to face defeat in both. In the first match, Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Rajasthan by 44 runs, while in the second match, Kolkata Knight Riders defeated them by eight wickets.
Rajasthan's regular captain Sanju Samson is not fully fit yet, due to which the team management has handed over the captaincy to Parag in three matches. However, Sanju definitely plays as an impact player in the team.
Summary
Parag has played 70 matches in the IPL, in which he has scored 1202 runs. During this, he has scored 6 half-centuries, in which his highest score is 84 not out. Apart from this, he has taken four wickets so far in bowling. RR recently clarified why they gave the captaincy to Riyan Parag instead of Yashasvi Jaiswal.
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According to the team management, Parag has already proven his leadership ability as the captain of Assam, so he was given this responsibility. Parag is one of the few cricketers from the Northeast who have made a place in Team India with his talent.
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