In an interview with Hindustan Times, Rising Pune Supergiant owner Sanjeev Goenka said that former RPS captain MS Dhoni is one of the greatest minds but the present RPS captain Steve Smith is one step ahead of him.
“MS is one of the greatest minds I have interacted with. And he is the best wicketkeeper in the world,” Rising Pune Supergiant owner Sanjeev Goenka told Hindustan Times on Friday.
“The one mind ahead of Dhoni’s is Smith’s,” he further said, referring to RPS captain Steve Smith. “My brief to Smith was: ‘win the championship”.
Praising Smith’s captaincy skills, Goenka said that the firmness with which Smith has handled the situations in the ongoing IPL 2017 is praiseworthy.
“It’s difficult to believe the way he has planned some dismissals, the tact and firmness with which he has dealt with tricky situations and the win-or-nothing attitude he has been able to infuse in the team, get them to gel as a unit. And he’s gone out in the strategic timeouts to tell batsmen to either score 30 off the next 12 balls or get out. If we had a bad start, it was because Smith was out with food poisoning,” Sanjeev Goenka added while praising the Australian.
“The team got younger, fitter and more energetic. So, we have fielded better. This time, with whom players’ loyalties lay didn’t matter.”
“We didn’t want to be like a franchise that doesn’t invest its Rs 66 crore purse and is happy finishing fifth, but last year I didn’t know better. Also, with the World T20 around, we didn’t have time.”
