One of the greatest success stories in the U19 World Cup in South Africa earlier this year was the exceptional captaincy of Priyam Garg.
India dominated throughout the tournament until the final where the blue colts faced defeat at the hands of Bangladesh.
After India got a promising start, thanks to a resolute 88 from ‘Man of the Tournament’ Yashasvi Jaiswal, India ended up with a sub-par score of 177. Moreover, with the ball, India did well to restrict the Bangladesh side to 102-6.
The young Indian brigade displayed exceptional fight to take the match deep into the final few overs but could not manage to go across the finishing line. Now, Garg has opened up on how he learnt to remain calm by watching MS Dhoni play.
“I follow Dhoni sir. He is my idol and inspiration. I follow his footsteps when it comes to batting or captaincy. I have learnt how to remain calm and adapt to any situation and condition from Dhoni sir,” Garg was quoted as saying by TOI.
“I have watched his batting videos very closely and learnt from those. I always watch his videos of matches in which he turned the game on its head with his captaincy, batting or field-setting skills.” he added.
Further, Garg described the knocks where Dhoni took his team out of precariously placed situations to come out victorious in the match.
“Many times, we saw India losing five wickets for under 100 runs and then Dhoni took the team post 250. His knocks against Pakistan will always remain my favourite. He can calmly take the match deep and then shift gears,” the UP cricketer said,
“The way he judges the loose deliveries and then sends those out of the park is mind-blowing. Apart from this, his ability to run between the wickets is far superior than any player in the world. At his age, he is still so fit,” Garg concluded.
