An ex-teammate's insight on the captaincy of MS Dhoni
Mahendra Singh Dhoni has announced that he will retire from international cricket in 2020. He is only available for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL and will be back in action on Saturday as CSK is going to take on the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede stadium. After losing to Gujarat in the tournament opener, Chennai Super Kings defeated Lucknow Super Joints by 12 runs in their second match, with Dhoni hitting a crucial six in order to express fast bowler Mark Wood down the order.
Despite not being the same batsman anymore, his captaincy credentials could not be doubted. Former batsman of India and the Chennai Super Kings cricket team, Robbin Uthappa, has revealed how "irritating" it was to play against Dhoni.
Uthappa said on Jio Cinema, "When I played against CSK, I used to be very annoyed." I was very irritated with him. (Narrating an incident playing on-screen) He didn't have a fine leg for Hazlewood, so I knew he would bowl to this angle (outside off). I tried getting a boundary there (at the deep point) and got out. He forces you to play in areas where you're not used to playing. He plays with batsmen's minds. "He not only forces the batsmen to think differently, he forces the bowlers to think differently as well."
He also said that Dhoni used to play with the batsman's mind, remembering one incident during his time with CSK: "He puts the bowler in a situation where he feels that he needs to take that wicket-taking option." Devdutt was playing the pick-up shot really well. So he said, "Okay, we will force him to play that shot," and he brought the fine leg more into a leg-gully sort of position. I was like, "Where does he come up with these things?"