“MS Dhoni was not a fan of DRS,” reveals Aakash Chopra; explains India’s initial resistance to use technology

Virat Kohli loves DRS and wants it in every match he plays, says Chopra.

DRS or the Decision Review System has evolved into becoming one of the best innovations that the game of cricket has seen. Though it has led to a fall in umpiring standards, as they become more and more dependent on it.

However, when the technology first arrived in 2008, the Indian team was stung pretty hard by its faults and demerits during the Sri Lanka series that year as they found themselves on the wrong end of decisions and couldn’t fully utilize the tech to its maximum. This led to BCCI boycotting its use unless it was made perfect to a certain level.

Now Aakash Chopra, former India player, in an interview with Pakistan broadcaster Sawera Pasha in her YouTube chat show Cric Cast, revealed that then captain MS Dhoni was not a huge fan of DRS at that time, which led to the team not using it for a long time.

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“India was the first team to use DRS in around 2008 during a series against Sri Lanka. MS Dhoni was not the captain of the team, Anil Kumble was. We took some really bad DRS calls in that series. It was a new thing, and we made poor use of technology. That’s when we decided, that we don’t like it. And if we don’t like it, then we won’t use it,” Chopra said. 

“Also, MS Dhoni was not a fan of it. The thinking of your team’s captain matters a lot. Dhoni was convinced for the longest time that technology is not full-proof. Even today, it is not full-proof. There are still issues with the umpire’s call, there are still issues with soft-signals. There are still issues, but it was even more back then than it is today,” he added.

However, Chopra feels that India embraced DRS in its full after Virat Kohli became captain, as he liked technology helping the team.

“The fact is Dhoni didn’t like it one bit. So, if he didn’t like it, India won’t use it. Now things have changed since Kohli has become the captain. He (Kohli) is a huge fan of DRS. He wants DRS in every match - be it IPL, or Ranji match - in any match. Now the thought has changed that embrace the technology, take it forward and make it better,” he added.

MS Dhoni’s DRS calls have become legendary as time went on and social media even dubbed DRS as ‘Dhoni Review System’.

“Another strange thing is that Dhoni didn’t like it, but now I call DRS as ‘Dhoni Review System’. Because, if Dhoni said from behind the stumps, that we have to take DRS, then 9 out of 10 times, he gets it right, even when you feel he is making a mistake, he would turn out to be right,” Chopra further said.