Shane Watson: “The thought of playing under the great Mahendra Singh Dhoni excites me a lot”

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson has expressed his excitement to be playing alongside MS Dhoni in this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL).

Dhoni, who will captain the Chennai Super Kings, was retained by the franchise for INR 15 crores prior to the auction, while Watson was bought for INR 4 crores.

“It is going to be a real honour to play for such a great franchise with the history that the Chennai Super Kings have, and the thought of playing under the great Mahendra Singh Dhoni excites me a lot,” Watson told the team’s website.

Prior to joining the Super Kings, Watson represented the Rajasthan Royals from 2008 to 2015 and played for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the last two editions of the IPL.

Given the franchises he has played for, Watson admitted that playing for the Super Kings will be a “little strange” as they were one of the Royals’ biggest rivals.

“It is going to be a little strange initially as CSK were one of Rajasthan’s big rivals which started way back in the first year of the IPL. But it won’t take that long to subside,” he said. “I still absolutely love playing the game which is an easy motivation in itself. I still love the thrill of the unknown of every game and I am extremely competitive and so I have no problem with motivation at all for each game.

“Any CSK squad with Dhoni, (Suresh) Raina and (Ravindra) Jadeja as a starting point is going to be incredibly good and is always going to compare really well to the previous years.”

The Super Kings won back-to-back IPL titles in 2010 and 2011, but since then they have failed to add to their tally, despite making it to the final on three more occasions in 2012, 2013 and 2015.