Three years after ending his career in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Dwayne Bravo‘s influence on the tournament remains impossible to ignore. A modern IPL great, Bravo finished as one of the greatest all-rounders the league has ever seen and is still the most successful pacer in CSK history with 154 wickets across 10 seasons. Even after his retirement, his association with Chennai Super Kings continued in a coaching role before finally moving on last year and ending a golden chapter.
But while the professional paths have shifted, Bravo’s personal relationship with MS Dhoni has hardly changed. Their bond is based on instinctive understanding and mutual respect and goes far beyond captain and player. Bravo often mentions Dhoni as ‘brother from another mother’, a relationship that is not created through long conversations, but through trust.
One such moment came during CSK’s much-awaited return in 2018 after their two-year ban. Bravo had been playing long and made a full-length dive to stop the ball, a move that seemed routine given his athletic reputation. What followed, however, left him genuinely surprised.
“When we came back from the ban in 2018, I was diving for a ball while fielding for long. I’m obviously over 34. He called me into the ring and after the over, as he walked past, he said to me, ‘Don’t ever dive on my cricket pitch again. Your four overs are more important than saving four runs.’ When he said that, I was like, ‘Wow,'” Bravo revealed on the “Beard Before Wicket” podcast.
“After that, I started playing in the circle. That’s the kind of thing he does. He knows what you’re good at, and he wants you for that reason. He doesn’t want you to try to do something or be someone else. This is what I want from you, this is your job, and I’m happy with this,” Bravo added.
However, the trust between them arose much earlier. Bravo recalled his first on-field interaction with Dhoni, an interaction that immediately set the tone for their partnership.
“On my first visit, he asked me about my field. I told him what I wanted, and he said, ‘Oh no, maybe…’ I said, ‘No, no, it’s okay, this is what I want.’ I don’t think he ever told me anything about field placement again after that moment,” Bravo recalled.
“I had the feeling at that moment that he trusted me, that this man knows what he is doing and what he is talking about. From that moment on we called each other brother from another mother. He just let me be myself.”
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