'Gambhir played with MS Dhoni's ego': Irfan recalls former KKR captain's famous field set in IPL 2016

MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir are modern-day legends of Indian cricket. Over the years, the two have been part of some glorious wins for Team India. The duo have been playing together for a long time, since their India A days, even before they became a regular for the senior team. While there have been the occasional differences in the past, with several reports of a rift between the two, they do sharemutual respect for each other to date.

Recently, former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan recalled how Gambhir's on-field tactics against Dhoni rattled the latter a few years back in the IPL. During IPL 2016 and 2017, Dhoni was struggling for runs when he played for the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS). In IPL 2016, he led the Pune franchise and his side was on the mat, in match 45,after opting to bat first in their away game versus Gambhir's Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Kolkata.

When Dhoni came out to bat, at 74-4, KKR skipper Gambhirbrought in the likes of Shakib Al Hasan, Suryakumar Yadav and Yusuf Pathan in close-in positions and operated with his top spinners Sunil Narine and Piyush Chawla.

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The ploy rattled Dhoni as he was not able to rotate the strike. Recalling the incident, Irfan -- who was at the non-striker's end-- said that the former Indian captain was taken aback by Gambhir's tactics.

While doing commentary onStar Sports Hindiduring Lucknow Super Giants (LSG)'s home game versus Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings (CSK), in match 45 of IPL 2023 on Wednesday (May 03), Irfan said,"Gautam Gambhir played with the ego of MS Dhoni when he was the captain of KKR. He was the only one who succeeded in rattling him for years. MS was rattled to the core by the field setting."

Gambhir's aggressive field set for Dhoni resulted in his dismissal for a 22-ball eight in KKR-RPS clash in IPL 2016 (which KKR won by eight wickets). Such was Dhoni's desperation to get off the strike that it also resulted in Irfan's run-out. From 2016 onwards, Dhoni became susceptible against spin bowlers and, hence, Gambhir did use the same ployin the following IPL season.

At present, Dhoni is leading CSK in IPL 2023 and occupy the third position in the points table. Gambhir is LSG's team mentor. Lucknow are in the second spot. Both sides have 11 points each after ten games.