Former Indian skipper MS Dhoni is arguably one of the most successful captains in the history of world cricket, having led his team to victory in the inaugural 2007 ICC World T20, the 2010 and 2016 Asia Cups, the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.

After recent discussions between Indian captain Virat Kohli, head coach Ravi Shastri and Rohit Sharma, the BCCI roped in Dhoni as the team mentor specifically for this tournament. The former skipper was appointed to provide support and direction to the Indian team management, as per BCCI secretary Jay Shah's statement. Speaking about Dhoni's special inclusion in the team, former Indian cricketer Farokh Engineer mentioned, "IPL has mentors. Dhoni has always and still has got the Midas touch and whatever he has touched has turned into gold. I would hope that Dhoni brings us extra luck and I'm sure his knowledge would be extremely useful."

"What does a mentor do? It's an honorary thing. Sachin Tendulkar is the mentor of Mumbai Indians. And it’s lovely to have guys like him and Sachin around. In our time, once you give up the game, people forgot us. But today, fans do not forget. If you're a good and attractive cricketers, fans will always remember you. Dhoni is not the type to interfere with something or somebody. If he sees that something could be done better, I'm sure he would suggest it in a very clever way to Ravi and Virat," he added.