MS Dhoni gifts shuttler Srikanth Kidambi his bat through MSK Prasad

Ace Indian badminton superstar Srikanth Kidambi earned himself a unique present, an autographed bat from ex-Indian skipper MS Dhoni, after his wish to get a present from the swashbuckling wicket-keeper was met by India's chairman of selectors, MSK Prasad.

A huge fan of the wicket-keeper batsman, Srikanth Kidambi expressed his desire to receive a gift from Dhoni to the chairman who promised to get him the gift if he was to ascend to the numero uno position in world badminton.

Soon enough, in April this year, Kidambi rose to the top of the rankings after a stellar run of form which included four Super Series titles, the Indonesian Open, Australian Open, Denmark Open and the French Open title in 2017. With his crowning of the world number one in April, Kidambi became only the second Indian after legendary shuttler Prakash Padukone to get to the top of the male shuttler's rankings.

Re-living the incident, MSK Prasad said "I had already spoken about Srikanth’s wish to MSD. He was more than happy to hear this and he told me he himself is a badminton player and follows Indian badminton very closely," and added, "MSD then personally signed and sent an autographed bat to my house as a gift to Srikanth".

"I went all the way to Pullela Gopichand badminton academy yesterday and surprised Srikanth with MSD’s gift to him as he stood by his word and became numero uno in world badminton" and also went on to mention that the 25-year old Hyderabadi shuttler was "thrilled and excited" to receive the special gift from his cricketing idol.

Currently ranked third in the men's rankings, Kidambi continues to dominate in tournaments across the world and will hope that he regains his top ranking with some positive shows in upcoming tournaments later this year.