In a conversation with News9, Thisara Perera said, "I remember a special incident with MS Dhoni for Rising Pune Supergiants, in 2016, and that is where I felt that Dhoni is like my brother. In one of the matches, we were 35-5, and I came down to bat. MS was the non-striker."
"He walked up to me and said, 'Hi, TP. Let's just bat'. I defended my first ball and he comes to me knocking the pitch - 'Hey, TP. What are you doing?' I said, 'I am just watching the ball.' The reply from him was very special, something which I didn't expect with the sort of scorecard we were having at that time. 'No, no. I picked you because you can hit the ball miles away. Go explode'."
