Jammu and Kashmir might have had a forgettable outing against Jharkhand in the Vijay Hazare Trophy but their despair soon turned into ecstasy when the former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni walked into their dressing room to share his vast experience of the game.
Playing their last game of the tournament, Jammu and Kashmir were all out for a paltry 184. In reply, the MS Dhoni-led side chased down the total in the 35th over. It was Jammu & Kashmir’s fifth loss in six matches as they bowed out of the tournament. However, their disappointing end to the 50-over tournament turned memorable when Dhoni spent some valuable time with them.
After the match, Jammu and Kashmir captain Parvez Rasool requested Dhoni to have a chat with his teammates and the World Cup-winning captain headed straightaway to the Jammu and Kashmir dressing room and spent about 15 minutes with the players.
“Mahi bhai has always been helpful on cricketing matters. That’s his nature. It was a great opportunity to learn a thing or two from Mahibhai. He is a great guy. I played alongside him for India (Rasool’s skipper in his brief stint with India team were Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli),” Rasool said.
“I told him (Dhoni) few of our youngsters want to meet him for five minutes and within no time he obliged us and said ‘I will go from here’,” added the off-spinner.
Expressing his delight over the interaction with the India star, Jammu and Kashmir’s reserve wicketkeeper Raman Thaploo said:
“It was a great opportunity for our youngsters who have seen Dhoni only on TV… They saw Mahibhai for the first time today. Mahi went inside and answered their cricketing queries.”
Jammu and Kashmir batsman, Ian Dev Singh, who has scored only 40 runs in 5 outings, further said Dhoni gave him some batting tips.
“Our batsmen are going through bad patches. He said, ‘Every cricketer goes through a bad phase. When you are in good form, even a bad fielder takes a brilliant catch but it’s opposite in bad times. He said to work even harder in such testing times, be serious in the nets. You should not get out in nets. You will take confidence if you have this,” he said.