Recently, the whole country celebrated the ninth anniversary of India’s iconic win on April 2nd, 2020 and the fans went nostalgic after social media was flooded with posts and pictures from regarding the World Cup win. It has been 9 years to that iconic in of Team India but the memories of the tournament are still afresh in every cricket fan’s minds.
It was the brilliance of the team members and the mastermind of MS Dhoni, that helped team India bring the cup back home.
During that iconic night, the jam-packed Wankhede Stadium was sent to shocker when MS Dhoni walked in to bat ahead of Yuvraj Singh after the dismissal of Virat Kohli. However, one decision made all the difference.
Recently, after 9 years, legendary cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag revealed the thought process behind the decision that made MS Dhoni walked in ahead of Yuvraj Singh. In an interview with TOI, Sachin Tendulkar said:
“The partnership between Gautam and Virat was flourishing and we wanted to be a couple of steps ahead of the opposition. That’s when I told Viru … “if a left-hander (Gautam) gets out now, a left-hander (Yuvi) should go in, and if a right-hander (Virat) gets out, a right-hander (Dhoni) should go in. Yuvi was in tremendous form but Sri Lanka had two off-spinners going, so I thought a strategy change would work,”
Virender Sehwag also reacted to the same incident. He said that MS Dhoni walking in ahead of Yuvraj Singh caught Sri Lanka completely off-guard. He said:
“He was right. Left-right combination needed to continue. That change in strategy completely caught the Sri Lankans off guard,”
Explaining the reason behind the decision, Sachin Tendulkar said he asked Sehwag to run to downstairs and pass on a suggestion from his side. He revealed:
“There were two quality off-spinners in the attack so a left-hand, right-hand strategy made sense. Gautam was batting brilliantly and someone like Dhoni could’ve kept rotating the strike. So I told Viru, ‘tu overs ke beech mein sirf ye baat bahar jaake MS ko bol aur next over shuru hone se pehle waapis aaja. Main yahan se nahi hilne wala (Just go out into the balcony between the overs only to say this much to MS and come back fast before the next over begins. I’m not moving from here),”
Virender Sehwag added that before Sachin could complete his sentence, MS Dhoni was already walking towards the ground. He said:
“Before he could even complete his sentence, we saw MS walking into the dressing room. So, that’s when he (Sachin) repeated the same thing to MS, in front of me”
Further, Tendulkar said:
“I asked MS to consider this strategy. He then went to Gary (Kirsten), who was sitting outside. Then Gary came in and all four of us got talking about it. Gary too agreed it was the right thing to do, given the attack on hand. MS also agreed and promoted himself up the order,”
