‘MS Dhoni the wicketkeeper is an institution in himself’: R Sridhar

Dhoni is widely deemed as one of the greatest wicket-keepers of all time.

MS Dhoni | GettyFormer India skipper MS Dhoni is widely deemed as one of the greatest wicket-keepers of all time. He doesn’t follow the coaching manual and has his very own unorthodox wicket-keeping technique, but still holds the world record of most number of stumpings in international cricket.

Dhoni, who is still an active cricketer for the Chennai Super Kings in IPL, has 195 stumpings to his name in international cricket, which is 56 more than his nearest rival Kumar Sangakkara.

Speaking on Dhoni’s wicket-keeping, former India fielding coach R Sridhar recently said that the CSK captain is an institution in himself while pointing out that his skills improved as his game awareness got better with time.

"MS Dhoni the wicketkeeper is an institution in himself. Dhoni the wicketkeeper is a different book to write. None of his skills were developed overnight. It was not in his repertoire when he started or when India won the 2011 World Cup. It is something that has grown as his awareness of the game has gone better," Sridhar told Sony Sports.

MS Dhoni pulled off some unbelievable stumpings on the pitch, but R Sridhar advised the budding wicketkeepers not to follow his methods at home.

"You didn't see him doing these things probably in 2016 (correct me if I am wrong). His awareness of the game has grown so much. And those stumpings that you see, which he does, I would warn young wicketkeepers to not try that at home or in practice because he has done it after collecting millions of deliveries behind the stumps. Even if you break it down to slow motion, while his hands are coming forward towards the stumps, his wrists will be going back, giving a cushion to the balls," Sridhar added.

Apart from keeping, Dhoni’s street-smartness and razor sharp advices for the bowlers behind the stumps always proved to be the nightmare for opposition batters. He was also impressive with his inputs on DRS calls.

 
 

By Salman Anjum - 03 Jul, 2022

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