Even after winning three ICC trophies and five IPL titles, MS Dhoni and more importantly his captaincy remains an enigma. Dhoni has long retired from international cricket but always has his bag full of new tricks, enough to bamboozle opponents each year when he turns up for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. How else do you justify someone, time and again, staging a comeback against all adversity. Dhoni did it the last three times CSK won the IPL. In IPL 2018, Dhoni's CSK returned after a two-year-ban and lifted the title. Three seasons later, after his team had failed to qualify for the IPL Playoffs for the first time ever, Dhoni led CSK to their fourth IPL title and repeated the same last month. Dhoni cannot stop amusing.
Each season as more youngsters with fresher ideas and approach hope to leave behind an impact, Dhoni's sharp captaincy acumen still manages to race miles ahead of them. For example, this year during CSK's fixture against Kolkata Knight Riders, Venkatesh Iyer was left absolutely clueless by a piece of mastery by Dhoni. In an conversation, Iyer recalled batting against Dhoni, how he was left shellshocked by his dismissal and in fact, having a word with MSD about it.
"I and one more guy was batting. There were two fielders on the off-side – a short third man and covers. Everything was fine before he just called a fielder and placed it the other side. The very next ball went the exact same way and he was out caught. He could have had some bad luck too but I was wondering 'Why did it have to be off the very next ball? It could have happened 3-4 deliveries later, right?' Suddenly it felt 'Oh man! What a mind this guy has'," Venkatesh said on Raj Shamani's podcast.
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"Just this year, I was batting and I played a shot and got out at short third man. I turned around and saw 'He is standing wrong. That's not where a fielder stands. He is standing at a wrong position; he should be more to the right. Then I realised 'Oh'. I asked him after the match, 'Bhaiyya, kyu?' (Why?) He said the way the ball was leaving my bat; the fielders should be a lot fine. Then I was like 'WOW! I never even thought like that. To think so quickly then and there, and to understand the angle – cricket is all about angles – to read it is I think his biggest strength."
{{/usCountry}}"Just this year, I was batting and I played a shot and got out at short third man. I turned around and saw 'He is standing wrong. That's not where a fielder stands. He is standing at a wrong position; he should be more to the right. Then I realised 'Oh'. I asked him after the match, 'Bhaiyya, kyu?' (Why?) He said the way the ball was leaving my bat; the fielders should be a lot fine. Then I was like 'WOW! I never even thought like that. To think so quickly then and there, and to understand the angle – cricket is all about angles – to read it is I think his biggest strength."
{{/usCountry}}Venkatesh adds that Dhoni is the only player he is starstruck by. And this is when he was around the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma as well. In fact, he even shared the Indian dressing room with Kohli during ODIs in South Africa in December of 2021. But while Venkatesh was in some elite company, the aura around Dhoni is something else altogether.
"It has only happened with MS, like when I went to bat and realised that he is standing right behind me. Before the match, we are busy in our warm-ups when suddenly you hear the public scream out of nowhere. When you turn around, you see MS is walking from the dugout. He is so chill and doesn’t create a parity between youngsters and established legends like themselves," Venkatesh mentioned.