Tahir talked about Dhoni's fitness and captaincy style.
He was also in awe of Dhoni’s wicketkeeping skills and said that it’s the hard work behind the scenes and his fitness that’s made him what he is today.
Tahir, who was part of the RPS team with Dhoni recalled his lightning-fast stumping of AB de Villiers in an IPL 2017 match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. Dhoni showed his master class as he took the bails off in a flash after the RCB star batsman AB de Villiers was beaten by the flight of leg-spinner Imran Tahir.
Recalling the wicket of RCB’s AB de Villiers when Dhoni stumped him out at lightning-fast speed, Tahir said on the Lallantop show: "I do watch highlights of that stumping where all three stumps were uprooted within seconds.”
”Hard work. He does so much hard work and he’s so fit. Not just in stumping but between the wickets he is one of the fastest. He does all his hard work behind the scenes. I too haven’t seen any wicketkeeper stumping with that much speed,” Tahir added.
Tahir went unsold in the IPL 2022 auction after CSK released him in 2021. Currently, he is a part of the Star Sports Network commentary panel for the IPL 2023 and provides the viewers with his perspective on spin-bowling.
Talking about Dhoni’s leadership, Tahir said,” If we talk about him, we need one to two hours. There are a lot of things to talk about him. He is cool and a good decision-maker at the same time. Since he is a wicketkeeper-batsman so he knows what a spinner wants to do in a certain situation in the match. So Dhoni shares his experience with the spinners as he wants them to perform well for the team. Even if when a spinner concedes more runs, he comes and discusses things and plans for the wicket which I have done so many times.”
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He was asked about Ajinkya Rahane’s performance in IPL 2023 and said that Dhoni might have shared the case of Shane Watson with him, who in IPL 2018, failed with the bat majority of the season, only to come good in the playoffs and even scored a century in the final against SRH.
On Ajinkya Rahane’s dramatic rise in CSK, Tahir said,” Dhoni must have shared Shane Watson’s case with him when he could not make runs in 10 matches but he made the CSK win the semifinal and final. So that’s the confidence Dhoni gives to players.”
(Indian Express inputs)