Australian Daniel Christian recently recalled his time at Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS), when he got the golden opportunity to play alongside the legendary MS Dhoni in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Notably, Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS), a Pune-based IPL franchise, participated in the IPL in 2016 and 2017, when Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) were facing bans due to spot-fixing in July 2015. The Supreme Court had suspended both teams for two years.
Well, Steve Smith was the captain of RPS and Dhoni was playing with the Australian superstar in IPL 2017, and Christian revealed that the former CSK captain was the leader of the team despite not being the captain, and no one could stop him from doing so. what he wanted to do for the team.
Steve Smith was the captain, but MS Dhoni was the team leader: Daniel Christian
Speaking on the WillowTalk Podcast, Daniel Christian recalled the time when Steve Smith was captain of Pune in 2017, when the franchise dropped MS Dhoni as captain after finishing seventh in the 2016 IPL.
Daniel Christian said on the WillowTalk podcast: “Smithy was the captain, but MS was the team leader. Even though Smithy was the captain, but you know he’d be standing there and he’d be, you know, top guys and he said move over there, guys here and there and doing his thing.
Even in the batting order, the best thing about MS was that he just put on his kit and went, like he was playing under-10. If we lost a wicket maybe in 12-13 overs, maybe Ben Stokes or I or someone will be next.
Dhoni gets up, puts on his gear and keeps it up. He wouldn’t tell anyone. Smith or coach Stephen Fleming weren’t going to do anything. “Just let it go and do the work.”
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“If we lost a wicket in maybe 12-13 overs, maybe Stokes or I or someone should go next. Dhoni Stand up put on his gear and left like that. I wouldn’t tell anyone. Smith or coach Fleming wouldn’t They were “I’ll do anything”: Dan Christian 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/A6eIcTxIMQ
– 🎰 (@StanMSD) April 8, 2024
Simon Doull criticized MS Dhoni’s approach against DC
Meanwhile, former New Zealand cricketer Simon Doull criticized Dhoni’s (37* off 16 balls) approach with the bat during Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) 20-run loss against Delhi Capitals (DC) in the IPL. 2024 ongoing. Doull mentioned that Dhoni faced several dot balls before launching an assault on the DC bowlers in Visakhapatnam.
Simon Doull was quoted by Cricbuzz: “I know there was a lot of fuss about Dhoni’s innings, but he blocked a lot of balls. He faced many points and then, when he started not running, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. I know he is the great MS Dhoni, but it was a bad decision. “It was a really bad decision not to do those races.”
Doull added: “You’re still trying to win the game and I know it’s his first bat in a long time, first bat of the season and he’s probably thinking at some point about finding some way, but I haven’t done it. according to it. “I didn’t agree with what happened in that situation.”
“To me, it was a really poor look. I was looking at him and I thought, you know, it didn’t look good to me. It just didn’t look right to me at all when he wasn’t running.”