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Picture Credit: BCCI

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is an unorthodox cricketer and has his own ways of doing things. He has always been a unique cricketer. Be it captaincy, batting, or wicketkeeping, Dhoni always finds a different way of getting things done. He has lightning-fast hands behind the stumps that allow him to take off the bails in a fraction of a second and possesses strong wrists in front of them which helps him muscle the ball over the ropes. He uses his feet both to score and save runs. Without any doubt, MS Dhoni is one of the greatest to have played the game of cricket.

People fall short of words while describing Dhoni’s game. There are no people or a very few people who do not approve of MS Dhoni’s legacy. Ravi Shastri, the current head coach of the Indian team, has always praised Dhoni for several reasons. He was there in the commentary box on both the instances to witness Dhoni’s captaincy mastery and batting heroics respectively in the 2007 T20 World Cup Final and the 2011 World Cup Final. “Dhoni finishes off in style, a magnificent strike into the crowd. India lifts the World Cup after 28 years...it’s been an Indian captain who has been magnificent on the night of the final,” were the words of Ravi Shastri when Dhoni hit Nuwan Kulasekara for a six to win the 2011 World Cup.

MS is an unorthodox cricketer: Ravi Shastri

Ravi Shastri has voiced his opinion on MS Dhoni’s unorthodox wicket-keeping skills and praised the Indian for possessing a sharp cricketing mind in his new book Stargazing: The Players in My Life. Shastri has written, “MS is an unorthodox cricketer. His technique, in front of and behind the stumps, is not easily replicable...What made him so successful were his splendid hands. They were quicker than a pickpocket’s. No other wicketkeeper, at least in the era MS has played, was that fast. He was the best in the world for a long while, and in white-ball cricket by a long distance.”

Shastri further went on to call Dhoni sharp and uncanny while describing his captaincy. “MS was sharp in his observation of whatever was happening on the field, and uncanny when it came to making decisions based on ‘reading’ the trend of play. This quality of his went unnoticed simply because he made such few mistakes,” Shastri explained.