SA star Brevis speaks on spending time with Dhoni during CSK stint in IPL 2025

Johannesburg [South Africa], September 4 (ANI): Young South Africa and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batting sensation Dewald Brevis opened up on spending time with Indian cricket icon MS Dhoni during the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) season and what learnings he experienced during his playing days in the cash-rich league so far.
Brevis spoke to South African batting legend AB de Villiers on his YouTube channel. In the most recent IPL season this year, Brevis was among the very few positives from CSK's dismal bottom-finish season, scoring 225 runs in six matches and innings at an average of 37.50, with a strike rate of 180.00 and two half-centuries. He came in as a replacement for the injured bowler Gurjanpreet Singh.
Speaking on AB's channel, Brevis said that one thing that stands out about MS is his "humbleness".
"How he (Dhoni) is basically off the field, the time he has for players, for people. His room door is always open. If he is sleeping, that's the only time it is closed," Brevis added.
Brevis recalled being in the room with Dhoni sometimes and "chatting with him about his hobbies and watching cricket".
"That is just amazing and just to see how what he (Dhoni) does like off the field and like everyone knows what he does on the field and at training and yeah just it is very special. I enjoyed my time there," the South African player added.
Brevis came to CSK after two seasons with five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI), scoring 230 runs in 10 matches at an average of 23.00, with a best score of 49.
Speaking on his learnings from playing the IPL so far, Brevis said that when he was younger, he wanted to find his feet first and then have his family visit to watch him, because he did not want them to come to India without actually playing.
"I think the big thing for me was at the start my first year I was young and I always felt like I need to find my feet at first and I was like okay my family, everyone, they need to just wait before they visit like I don't want to be like the guy that's there and then the family is there and he's not. So, I wanted to show that I am grown up. I can do my own things and figure it out," said Brevis.
"But the big thing for me was is whatever you do like off the field and things like I want to share it with my family. I want to share it with people that I love, people in my inner circle. And it is those small things that I feel you must not like try to punish yourself," he added.
Brevis was signed by the Mumbai Indians (MI) for the 2022 season for Rs three crores, heading into the tournament after a record-breaking 2022 U19 World Cup for South Africa, scoring a massive 506 runs in six matches at an average of 84.33, with two centuries and three fifties, having a strike rate of 90.19.
The youngster is currently a part of South Africa's white-ball tour to England.
While he failed in the ODI leg of the Australia tour with single-digit scores in two matches, he absolutely rocked the T20I leg, with a chart-topping 180 runs in three matches at an average of 90.00, a strike rate of 204 and best score of 125*, the highest score by a South African in T20Is. (ANI)