Legendary batsman and former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar paid a heartfelt tribute to MS Dhoni after he once again guided his Chennai Super Kings to yet another IPL title on Friday after defeating Kolkata Knight Riders by 27 runs in the season final at the Dubai Internation Stadium.
From suffering a humiliating defeat last season to making a strong comeback and eventually winning the title this year, MS Dhoni’s yellow army completed a remarkable turnaround. Though MS Dhoni didn’t have a great season with the bat but was brilliant once again as a skipper as he marshaled his Yellow Army to perfection. He has been receiving praises from all corners for his terrific captaincy and decisions.
Sunil Gavaskar was all praises for the “leader” MS Dhoni and explained why he will go down as one of the greatest captains ever. He hailed Dhoni’s ability to back players irrespective of their failures ensuring that the team never feels under pressure from his side.
Gavaskar also pointed out how every player has his own game plan under MSD and the skipper rarely interferes with those plans. He said:
“It’s very impressive because he has shown faith in the players. Look, you know the ability of the players and you also know that in this game of cricket, there will be days when a player doesn’t do well. He might be a brilliant fielder, but might drop catches and misfield. As a batsman, you could also get out to full-tosses. And also, for the bowlers, they may bowl the occasional bad ball which gets hit for sixes. But if you know as a captain a player’s capability, you allow them that bad day or a bad over and that is what Dhoni is so good as,”
He added:
“With him what happens is that he just doesn’t put any pressure on his own team. He just lets them express themselves. It is so true in MSD’s case. He doesn’t seem to interfere at all in anybody’s game plan. Every individual has his own game plan. And once the captain is convinced that is how it is, he is not going to interfere,”
Further, batting legend Sunil Gavaskar, who has himself led the Indian cricket team in the past to many accolades, expressed that how he wasn’t fortunate enough to share the dressing room as MSd Dhoni but can see why the tag ‘Captain Cool’ suits him well. He said:
“I haven’t been fortunate enough to have been in the same change room as MS Dhoni. But I just see the calmness that he brings to situations. He is not Captain Cool for nothing. There is never any panic. For the first time in that 19th over, when Thakur bowled wides, for the first time, I saw him diddle a bit because it was only delaying the inevitable,”
