Indian cricket team’s former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, known as Captain Cool, has not always been so cool. In an exclusive chat on Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected, panel of cricket experts, including Dhoni’s former teammates Gautam Gambhir and Irfan Pathan, as well as ex-Australian seamer Brett Lee have shared instances when Dhoni lost his cool.
Cool, calm and collected has been Dhoni for cricket fans most of the time! But it turns out that even this composed captain can lose his temper. The latest episode of Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected, which airs every Saturday & Sunday, featured rare instances when Captain Cool was not so cool!
Kuldeep (Chahar) is not the only one to face Mahi’s wrath. In IPL 2019, CSK fast-bowler Deepak Chahar bowled consecutive no-balls against Kings XI Punjab in the 19th over of the chase and Dhoni was furious. The young pacer learned quickly and bowled CSK to victory.
A few days later, Dhoni was at the epicentre of extra-ordinary scenes during CSK’s chase in Jaipur. After the umpire’s no-ball call was controversially over-ruled by his colleague at square-leg, Dhoni stormed onto the field from the dugout to give the umpires a piece of his mind. MSD didn’t get his way, but CSK ended up winning the game. Over the years, Dhoni has forged a close bond with Ravindra Jadeja. Back in 2015, even Sir Jadeja got an angry stare from his skipper for not doing his job in the field.
While there have been instances when Dhoni has lost his cool, experts on Cricket Connected feel that Dhoni is human and is bound to react sometimes.
Having played with MS Dhoni across all formats of the game, Gambhir said “People say that they have never seen him lose his cool, but I have on a couple of times. It was during the 2007 World Cup and in other World Cups when we haven’t done well. He’s human and he’s bound to react as well. It’s absolutely fair enough to do that. Even at CSK, if there’s a miss-field or if someone has dropped a catch. Yes, he’s cool, he’s probably much cooler than the rest of the other captains. Much cooler than me for sure!”
Irfan cited an example when Dhoni lost his cool during a warm-up session. “It was in 2006-07. During the warm-up, we had a game where the right-handed batsman would bat with the left hand and vice-versa. After we finished the warm-up, we used to get into our practice. So, during the warm-ups, there were 2 teams. Once Dhoni was given out which he didn’t think he was. He threw his bat and made a dash to the dressing room and came late for the practice. So, he does get angry.”
Brett Lee too has seen a not so cool side of captain cool. “We want entertainers, we want people to do that and MS Dhoni is an entertainer. He never steps over the boundary. If he does, it’s very rare. But we are all human as Gautam Gambhir said,” said former Australian seamer.
Dhoni is still revered as one of the most successful Indian captains and will always remain a rich part of Indian cricket’s glorious folklore!