Often for his conduct on the cricket area, MS Dhoni known as an enigma. However, his former India and CSK teammate Robin Uthappa feels the World Cup-winning India captain is the ‘easiest particular person on the planet’.
“His simplicity is one thing that has at all times been there and it’s one thing that has not modified. He continues to be so simple as the primary time they met. Dhoni is the only particular person on the planet.
Trying to decode Dhoni additional, Uthappa mentioned, ‘MS is a really open particular person. He would not hesitate to talk the reality, even when it hurts you. I bear in mind when CSK signed me within the public sale, he referred to as me up and mentioned, ‘I’m not positive if you’ll get an opportunity to play because the season is much away and I have not considered it. If you end enjoying, I’ll let you realize.’ Till now, I had loved 13 profitable years in IPL. Nevertheless, he informed me in entrance of me what he needed to do. I nonetheless admire it very a lot.
Uthappa, who was a part of the India staff that received the 2007 T20 World Cup, spoke brazenly about assembly Dhoni for the primary time, describing an incident by which Dhoni injured the previous India cricketer. Sridharan Sriram.
“The first time I noticed MS was in 2003 at an Indian camp at NCA Bangalore. He was batting towards Munaf Patel when he used to bowl actually quick with a sling motion. Other quick bowlers have been additionally bowling. MS was batting and was hitting him for lengthy sixes. He really injured S Sriram. Sriram was bowling to him and Dhoni got here out and hit the ball arduous. Sriram touched it together with his hand and the ball went again 10-20 yards. We thought Sriram was operating after the ball, however he ran after the ball and went straight to the dressing room as he had damaged two fingers. We wished to see how a lot energy MS has and it was explosive. At that point I knew that he would play for India. He is a particular batsman.”
Uthappa additional recalled, ‘We at all times used to have dinner collectively. We had a bunch: Suresh Raina, Irfan Pathan, RP Singh, Piyush Chawla, Munaf (Patel), MS and me. We used to order dal makhani, butter rooster, jeera aloo, gobi and rotis. But MS is a really inflexible particular person in relation to meals. He used to eat butter rooster however with out the rooster, solely with gravy! When he used to eat rooster, he didn’t eat rotis. He could be very unusual in relation to meals.
Dhoni stays the one captain to win two World Cups (T20 and ODI) and the Champions Trophy and is also known as the best captain in worldwide cricket historical past. “He has sharp instincts and he backs his instincts. That’s why he has been such a profitable captain. He takes accountability for each end result, whether or not it’s a win or a loss. If he takes a unsuitable resolution due to his intuition, then man is unable to sleep for just a few days. He begins considering extra. If a very good captain’s instincts are good 4 or 5 instances out of 10, Dhoni’s instincts are good 8 or 9 instances.
Uthappa was a part of the 2021 IPL-winning CSK squad and scored 63 and 31 in Qualifier 1 and the ultimate because the Yellow Army received their fourth league title, “In the primary season, I noticed everybody within the staff calling him Mahi bhai. I went as much as him and requested if I also needs to name him Mahi Bhai. He dismissed it saying, name me no matter you need, it would not matter. Please name me Mahi solely.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
