India's out-of-favor pacer Sudeep Tyagi doesn't think anyone can match the brilliance of MS Dhoni on the field. He went on to call former India captain Dhoni the best cricketing mind.
Tyagi has played under Dhoni in ODIs, as well as Chennai Super Kings (CSK). He added that the likes of Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, and Anil Kumble had a different captaincy style and Dhoni was completely apart from them.
“There is no match to Dhoni’s cricketing mind. From the beginning he used to think differently. Previous captains like Dada (Sourav Ganguly), Dravid, Anil bhai (Anil Kumble) everybody had their own style of going about with things. But, Dhoni had a different genre altogether,” Tyagi said in a conversation with sports presenter Dr. Yash Kashikar on his Instagram live show ‘Say Yash To Sports’.
Tyagi believes Dhoni's ideas were out of the box and he always felt the CSK skipper would go on to become one of the best captains.
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“He used to think out of the box and the first time I got a chance to play under him in 2009, I knew he thought differently from others. It always felt like he will become a very successful captain in the future which he eventually did,” said Tyagi.
The former CSK pacer is in favor of Dhoni playing for India in the T20 World Cup. ICC had to postponed the 2020 T20 World Cup due to Coronavirus pandemic.
“I think Dhoni should comeback in the side for the 2021 T20 World Cup. It will be good for him as well as the team because he brings in years of experience with him. Maybe after the World Cup, he can take a call on his future.”
Tyagi, who played 14 matches for CSK in the season 2009 and 2010, shared his experience of playing under Dhoni and coach Stephen Fleming. “CSK has great team management and especially the Dhoni-Fleming duo is brilliant. They make the players comfortable and treat everyone equally. Whether you are an international or a domestic player, they give equal time to everyone on and off the field.
"They make sure everyone feels like a match-winner. Even if you are on the bench, they will always motivate you. I think this is a big factor in making them so successful as a franchise,” he added.