India’s 1983 World Cup winner Syed Kirmani was once the chairman of the Indian selection committee when MS Dhoni was first noticed at the national level and selected for the East Zone team.
As many have seen in MS Dhoni’s biopic movie, the stumper was struggling to balance his life as a ticket checker at the Kharagpur railway station and an attacking wicket-keeper batsman. Then in 2004, a Deodhar Trophy match saw Dhoni hitting massive sixes towards the place where the selectors were sitting, earning him his maiden call-up to the Indian team.
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Now Syed Kirmani, in a chat with Hindustan Times, revealed the real story behind Dhoni’s selection for the East Zone team where he displayed his power and ability to hit big sixes.
“I have never disclosed this before but here is how Dhoni was picked. I and Pranab Roy - my co-selector from East Zone - were watching a Ranji Trophy match. I’m not sure which match it was since it was a long time ago, but Pranab Roy is proof. He said to me ‘there is this keeper batsman from Jharkhand, who is a very promising youngster and deserves selection’,” Kirmani said.
“I asked him ‘is he keeping wickets in this match?’ Pranab said ‘no but he is fielding at fine leg.’ That is when I got Dhoni’s stats from the last two years to look into. And Wow! There was terrific consistency in his batting ability. Without even seeing him keep wickets, I suggested that Dhoni be selected for East Zone straightaway. And the rest is history,” the 1983 World cup winner added.
The early 2000s saw India struggling to find a replacement for Nayan Mongia, whose career suffered from injuries and match-fixing allegations, and the next best candidate, Saba Karim got hit in the eye, which ended his career.
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Deep Dasgupta, Ajay Ratra, and Sameer Dighe all were given a chance to flourish, but none managed to cement their place in the team. On the other hand, Adam Gilchrist of Australia had changed the role of wicketkeeper-batsman in limited-overs format with his explosive hitting and top-class keeping skills.
Even Rahul Dravid kept wickets for an extended time frame including the 2003 World Cup tournament, but India yearned for a Gilchrist-like keeper. “A wicket-keeper is the best guide to the captain, to bowlers and is in the best position to set the field and to find the weak points in a batsman,” Kirmani said.
Dhoni proved his selection right with two amazing knocks of 148 against Pakistan and 183* against Sri Lanka in ODIs and a similarly good knock in Tests as well. This led to him being named captain of the Indian team in due time and responded with the ICC T20 World Cup win in 2007.
“When Dhoni was appointed captain, it was the best thing to have happened to Indian cricket. He proved what the importance of a wicket-keeper batsman is all about. In my time, the committee thought that it would be an added responsibility, which could hamper the performance. I’m glad Dhoni proved them wrong and changed that perception,” Kirmani said.
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However, with India shifting focus towards makeshift keepers again, with KL Rahul being preferred by Virat Kohli in limited-overs as it provides him with better balance; Kirmani feels that things are going back to the era before Dhoni.
Furthermore, the fact that good keepers are in the team as specialist batsmen such as Karthik is another concern. “Wicket-keeping has taken the back seat in this era. A batsman or an all-rounder is considered who can stop the ball behind. No wonder there have been some stunning stumpings and brilliant catches taken by makeshift wicket-keepers,” Kirmani said.
