MS Dhoni, the player and his life story is winning more fans by the day, post the release of his biopic ‘MS Dhoni: The Untold Story’. Now, his signature ‘helicopter shot’ is the image on every Dhoni fan’s mind.
The shot has become synonymous with Dhoni but very few of us know that Dhoni’s helicopter shot was not his own invention. The shot was called ‘Thappad Shot’ back then and he learned it from his friend, Santosh Lal.
Santosh used to be Dhoni’s cricket buddy and they both used to play a lot of tennis ball cricket together. They used to travel together across the state for their cricket matches and MSD was very fond of Santosh’s batting skills.
While speaking to The Indian Express, another friend of Santosh Lal, Nishant Dayal said:
He and Dhoni were the best of friends since childhood. They would play tennis ball games endlessly. They both worked for Railways. Santosh was fearless as a batsman. Over the years, Dhoni may have patented the “helicopter shot” but growing up, there was someone who was better at it. Dhoni always admired his batting style. And Santosh taught him to play the helicopter shot.”
Even after Dhoni became a star, he remained friends with Santosh who went on to play Ranji cricket for Jharkhand.
However, tragically, Santosh suffered pancreatitis and lost his life in July 2013. At that time, Dhoni had arranged an air ambulance for his ailing friend to shift him to a Delhi hospital from Ranchi to get proper treatment but Santosh didn’t make it.
Thank you, Santosh Lal, for teaching our Captain Cool the helicopter shot so that he could entertain us with so many picture-perfect finishing shots.
