'If MS Dhoni got you out in the nets, you wouldn't be able to sit with him': Ex-India star narrates startling MSD story

A number of great Indian players made their start to international cricket under MS Dhoni.

MS Dhoni is rated as one of the most successful captains of all time in international cricket, particularly in the limited overs formats. Dhoni is the only captain to have won all three ICC tournaments, the T20 World Cup in 2007, the World Cup in 2011 and the Champions Trophy. Apart from this though, his larger legacy would be seen as the number of great careers that started under his captaincy.

A number of great careers started under the captaincy of MS Dhoni (Getty Images)

Current India captain Rohit Sharma may have played his first international when Rahul Dravid was skipper but it was under Dhoni that he flourished and came to be recognised as one of the best ODI batters in the world. Stalwart Virat Kohli's career started under Dhoni and he ultimately succeeded him as captain in all formats. Other names to have got their breaks under Dhoni include Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Shikhar Dhawan among others.

Suresh Raina is also among the players who played under Dhoni for a long time and in his case, it was the same for him in the IPL as well. Raina is regarded as one of the most prolific batters in the history of the T20 league and played all but two years of his career under Dhoni at Chennai Super Kings. The two years he didn't play with him was when CSK were suspended.

Raina, who retired from international cricket in August 2020 on the same day as Dhoni did, had an interesting story to say about his former captain's bowling skills. While he was renown for his batting and wicketkeeping, Dhoni has also rolled his hands from time to time in international cricket, even getting Kevin Pietersen out in a Test match before the decision was reviewed succesfully by the England great.

Raina said that while Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan and Lasith Malinga have to be the toughest bowlers he has faced, Dhoni was the toughest to face in the nest simply because if you fell to him, the CSK captain would not let you forget about it for days. “I think Muralitharan and Malinga, but in the nets, it was MS Dhoni,” said Raina on Home of Heroes on JioCinema.

“If he got you out in the nets then you’d not be able to sit with him for one and a half month because he’d keep gesturing and remind how he got you out. He’d bowl off-spin, medium pace, leg spin, everything. In the nets, he would even justify his front foot no-balls (laughs). Wherever he’d get a red cherry in a Test match he’d go for it. In England, he’d swing it full throttle.”

Raina said that he had been offered a number of chances to leave CSK in the IPL but it was Dhoni who asked him to stay and he was only too happy to listen to him. “I captained UP, Chennai, and several other teams also approached me, but Dhoni bhai would say don’t go elsewhere, I am the captain and you are the vice-captain. I said I don’t have aspirations to be captain, I just want to play and make my country win. If I get the opportunity, I will work hard at it, but I never harboured any such aspirations to be the captain. I always felt I was a team player and was happy to help out teammates or sort their problems," said Raina