Former Indian team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MS Dhoni) is one of the greatest captains in the world. Under Dhoni's leadership, India has won three ICC titles. But there was a time when the former head coach was furious after seeing the innings of the veteran finisher. This story is about that match when the Indian team was touring England for ODIs, T20s and five Tests.
Team India had won the T20 series by 2-1. After that, he started with a win in the ODI series as well. But India had to face a crushing defeat in the second ODI. MS Dhoni became the reason. Who didn't even try to take the team to the target. Dhoni batted very slowly. In the same match, Mahi completed his 10,000 runs in ODI cricket. But India had to face defeat by 86 runs in that match. Former fielding coach Sridhar has revealed this in Coaching Beyond My days with Indian Cricket. He told that former head coach Ravi Shastri had given a very angry reaction while targeting Dhoni.
Dhoni batted against his nature - R Sridhar
Told by Sridhar, 'India was in the match as long as Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina were at the crease. But after losing a wicket, Dhoni had only bowlers left to give him company. At that time, contrary to his nature, he batted slowly. We needed 10 runs per over. At that time we scored 20 runs in 6 overs. We were very happy when Dhoni completed 10000 ODI runs. But we wanted to know why they did not try to reach the target.
R Sridhar wrote in his book that Ravi Shastri had said before the last ODI, 'It is not important what you are. There should not be another occasion when the team does not try to win the match. This will not happen at all while I am alive. But if someone does this then it will be his last match. You can lose a match, there is nothing to be ashamed of, but we will not lose like this.
