Former India captain MS Dhoni achieved massive success in both international and domestic cricket. He is the only captain to win all ICC trophies. Under his leadership, India won the 2007 T20 World Cup, the 2010 and 2016 Asia Cups, the 2011 Cricket World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy. In the Indian Premier League (IPL), Dhoni won three IPL titles for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) – second best after Rohit Sharma.
Apart from his captaincy heroics, Dhoni is known for his calmness and composure. Hardly has anyone would have seen him losing his temper on the field. Probably that’s the reason why Dhoni is called ‘Captain Cool’ by his fans.
However, former Australia batsman Michael Hussey has revealed one incident when MSD reacted angrily after one of his tips as CSK batting coach led to Dhoni’s dismissal during an IPL 2018 match. While speaking on ‘Lessons Learnt with the Greats’ podcast, Hussey also shared when Dhoni avoided his advice on how to tackle Rashid Khan in the IPL 2018 Qualifier 1 match.
It was the first Qualifier of IPL 2018 between CSK and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), and Hussey revealed how on the night before the crucial game, he had received a helpful clip from the video analyst, in respect to Rashid’s action.
“The night before the qualifying final against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he (the analyst) sent me this split-screen of Rashid Khan. When he (Rashid) runs in to bowl, when he bowls his leg-spinner, he holds his finger wide as he’s running in, and when he bowls a wrong ‘un, (he bowls) with fingers like this. And I thought – ‘Woah, this is good, but I am not sure if I should be throwing this out to the batsmen the night before this massive qualifying final’. So, I am sitting on this information, and I am going back and forth – ‘Should I, should I not, would I want it’,” said Hussey.
“And I said to myself – If we play this game tomorrow and lose, and Rashid Khan goes really well, and I have sat on this info, and I haven’t sent it out, I am not going to forgive myself. So, I decided to send it out to all the batsmen. But I did make sure I wrote: ‘You may want to use this, you may not. It is just here for your information. If you want anything, go for it, if not,” he added.
Then the match day came, and CSK were struggling at 24/3 when Dhoni walked out to bat. The CSK skipper had a hard time understanding the leg-spin of Rashid. Eventually, Dhoni was bowled by a googly.
“Rashid Khan comes on to bowl, one of the very first balls he (Dhoni) faces, goes for the big cover drive – wrong’ un, bowled through the gate. And I’m thinking ‘Uh, gosh. Okay, no worries.’ And MS walks straight off the field, and I am sitting in the dugout, and he walks straight up to me and says ‘I’ll bat my own way, thanks,’ and sits back down,” Hussey added further.
Hussey expressed that after Dhoni’s dismissal, he thought it’s over for him as a coach of CSK, but Dhoni did come up to him for a chat and calmed down the scenes.
“As a coach, I thought my days are over forever! But, to MS’s credit, after the game, he was absolutely fantastic. He came up and spoke to me, and we had a good chat. He said that the information was correct, but for him, he needed time to go away and process it and practise it,” concluded Hussey.
