‘This is real captaincy’, KKR’s millionaire on how MS Dhoni’s cunningness had him in IPL 2024
Sports, Cricket: KKR named Iyer the new vice-captain ahead of IPL 2025, while MS Dhoni will continue to hog all the limelight but as an uncapped player this time.
MS Dhoni is a cricketing genius for what he did in the game, for what he brings to the game and how he dictates the game. Known to be a cunning mind behind the wickets, Thala, as cricket fans call him has a fan in one of IPL 2025’s millionaires -Venkatesh Iyer from Kolkata Knight Riders. Reflecting on one of the instances from the last season, Iyer explained how Dhoni’s tactics bamboozled him.
During an encounter between the CSK and the KKR the past season, at the Chepauk in Chennai, Iyer got out early on just three in the first innings, with Ravindra Jadeja picking his wicket. However, the setup behind Iyer’s dismissal was where he got gobsmacked.
Explaining in detail what happened in the lead-up to it, Iyer said before the ball on which he got out, Dhoni changed the field, moving a fielder from the deep square leg to the short third, leaving Iyer wondering what was going to happen. And as the worst could have, he found the same fielder on the next ball, leaving him shocked over Dhoni’s ‘real captaincy’.
“Dhoni took out a fielder from deep square leg and placed him at short third, slightly away from the spot where short third usually is. The [very] next ball, I hit straight into short third’s hands,” Iyer revealed in an interview with The Cricket Monthly.
How does he do it?
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Intrigued by Dhoni’s thoughts, Iyer approached him after the game, questioning how he planned it.
“Post the game, I asked Dhoni why he placed that fielder in that spot and he had a proper answer for it. He was trying to understand the impact of the ball from my bat, the angles. His reading of angles is just out of the world, and he knew that if I hit this shot, it had to go in that direction, so he had a fielder put there. This is being proactive. This is real captaincy: understanding what a batter is doing.
“That was the cunning of Dhoni. I could have waited for a couple of balls, but no, the next ball, I hit it there (chuckles), and it just happened. The cameras showed the exact picture of how the field changed and the very next ball I hit there. It is up to the batsman to understand why certain things are being done [on the field],” Iyer added.
Meanwhile, Iyer and Dhoni will continue to feature for their respective franchises in IPL 2025. While KKR named Iyer as the new vice-captain, with seasoned campaigner Ajinkya Rahane set to lead the team, MS Dhoni will hog all the limelight but as an uncapped player this time.
(With inputs from agencies)
