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‘Dhoni was a lot calmer by 2013 Champions Trophy’: Irfan Pathan explains how MSD’s captaincy changed over the years
Pathan revealed that even though most of the things about Dhoni’s captaincy remains the same, the former India skipper had gotten a lot calmer by the time the Champions Trophy came around.
Irfan Pathan has opened up about the captaincy transformation in MS Dhoni between 2007 and 2013, explaining how the former India captain had started trusting and backing his bowlers more and their judgements by the time the Champions Trophy was held in England.
Pathan, who played under Dhoni during some of India’s biggest triumphs – the T20 World Cup win in 2007, the CB Series win in Australia a few months later and the 2013 Champions Trophy itself, revealed that even though most of the things about his captaincy remains the same, Dhoni had gotten a lot calmer by the time the CT came around.
“He was much calmer in 2013. Look, in 2007 it was the first time and you understand that when you’re given a big responsibility of leading the country, you always get excited about certain things. Obviously, the meetings were always smaller even in 2007 and in 2013 Champions Trophy as well, there were no differences in terms of 5-minute meetings,” Pathan said on the Cricket Connected Show on Star Sports.
“But one thing that has really changed and that happens with experiences, when young Mahendra Singh Dhoni became a captain in 2007, he used to run from the wicket-keeping end to the bowler in excitement and try to control the bowler as well.”
By 2013, from the likes of RP Singh, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar, India had moved on to a stronger bowling attack, with Ishant Sharma being a regular in India’s limited-overs set-up, followed by the young and promising Bhuvneshwar Kumar, pacer Umesh Yadav, spinner R Ashwin and Pathan himself. The former left-arm quick may not have gotten to play a game in the tournament, but he got to witness up close the change in Dhoni’s attitude in terms of backing his bowlers.
“By 2013 came he was letting the bowler control themselves rather he controlling them, so he understood that and he was very calm and in control in 2013 Champions Trophy,” Pathan added. “When Dhoni became the captain for the first time and then obviously talking about 2013 Champions Trophy he gave the experiences in between of trusting his slow bowlers, he used to always trust his slow bowlers, he used to always trust his spinners and I think by the time Champions Trophy came he was very clear that in a crucial moment of the time he needs to get his spinners into play to win the games.”
