Former Indian wicket-keeper Kiran More recently talked about the impact of former Indian wicket-keeper batsman and World T20 & World Cup-winning captain MS Dhoni in the national team.
While MS Dhoni took a long break from professional cricket after the heartbreaking semi-final defeat in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, he surprisingly announced the retirement from the international cricket on 15th August 2020.
Talking about the major impact of Dhoni in the Indian team, Kiran More brought out an example. While Dhoni strongly guided the spinners from behind the stumps, the left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja and the left-arm chinaman Kuldeep Yadav are especially missing those powerful guidance.
More told Indian Women’s coach WV Raman, ‘‘During Dhoni’s time, he was constantly giving advice to bowlers on what length or line to bowl – albeit mostly in Hindi. Now that Dhoni is not there behind the wickets, India’s spinners are struggling – you will see Kuldeep (Yadav) or (Ravindra) Jadeja are no longer the same bowlers. He has done it for 10-12 years with aplomb as Virat Kohli could afford to stand in the deep, but now he has to either stand at short extra cover or mid off to talk to the bowlers.’’
Recently, during the Sydney T20I (second game of the three-match series), while the Indian fans brought the placard of missing Dhoni, Indian captain Virat Kohli also showed his feeling as he was also missing him.
It will be very difficult to find another MS Dhoni: Kiran More
While Pakistan (Sarfaraz Ahmed), England (Jos Buttler – as a stand-in captain) and South Africa (Quinton de Kock) have recently chose their wicket-keepers to lead the national team, Kiran More believes that Dhoni played an important role for this. But he also feels that it will be very difficult to find another Dhoni.
More claimed, ‘‘It will be very difficult to find another Dhoni. If you see so many countries like Pakistan, England or South Africa trying with a wicketkeeper-batsman as captain, it’s because they have seen the benefit of having someone like him behind the stumps to read the game from the best position in the ground.”
Kiran More was the chief selector of the Indian men’s national cricket team when MS Dhoni earned his maiden national team call-up. More called him a ‘complete package’ from the early days as he was selected to whack the ball and could give Rahul Dravid a respite from the ODI wicket-keeping.
MS Dhoni played 90 Tests, 350 ODIs and 98 T20Is. Apart from his batting and smart wicket-keeping, Dhoni was also a great captain under whom the Indian team achieved a lot of success, including winning the ICC World T20 2007, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and ICC Champions Trophy 2013.