Former Indian coach Greg Chappel has stated that MS Dhoni is the most powerful batsman that he has ever seen on a cricket field.
Chappell’s stint as the coach of the Indian team was a rather controversial one as he clashed with several of senior members of the team, prominently with the then-captain and current Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly.
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His time, however, also saw the rise of youngsters including former Indian captain MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina.
“I vividly remember that I was left awestruck when I saw him batting for the first time. He was definitely the most exciting cricketer in India at that time. He used to hit the ball from the most unusual positions. He is the most powerful batsman I have ever seen,” said Chappell during a chat session on the Facebook handle of the Playwrite Foundation. (via IANS)
“I remember his knock of 183 against Sri Lanka and how he tore them apart. It was power hitting at its very best. The next match was in Pune. I asked MS, ‘why don’t you play along the ground more instead of trying to hit every ball to the boundary’. We were chasing 260 odd and were in a good position and Dhoni was playing a contrasting innings to the one he had played just a couple of days before.
“We still needed 20 runs to win and Dhoni asked me, through 12th man RP Singh if he could hit sixes. I told him not until the target was in single digit. When we needed six runs to win, he finished the game with a six,” he said.
Dhoni went on to become one of the most successful captains of all-time leading the country to the 2007 T20 World Cup and ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 as well as the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 along with leading the team to the number 1 position in the ICC Test Rankings.
“I always used to challenge him if he could finish the game. There used to be a booming smile on his face, whenever he used to score the winning runs. He is definitely the best finisher the game has ever seen,” said Chappell.
Dhoni’s last competitive game was India’s semifinal encounter against New Zealand in ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. He was all set to lead his IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the 13th edition of the lucrative league but the tournament stands postponed indefinitely owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
