It only took eight years of international cricket for MS Dhoni to complete the trophy cabinet, winning all three ICC championships (ODI World Cup, T20 World Cup and the Champions Trophy) besides holding the Test mace for nearly two years in between as India’s all-format captain.
The high-pressure workload was so intense that Dhoni decided to skip wicket-keeping drills altogether from his schedule, revealed former India fielding coach R Sridhar.
“MS Dhoni did not practice wicketkeeping after playing eight or nine years of international cricket. While he was growing up, and while he was yet to make a mark in international cricket, let’s say before 2007, before 2005, he worked a lot on his wicketkeeping skills. He had a very good technique; he had a technique of his own. I wouldn’t call it unorthodox but very effective,” Sridhar told in an interaction with cricket.com.
“He had practiced a lot, and he self-admittedly said that once he started playing three formats for India, the workload was so much that there was no need for him to practice more because his fingers were taking a beating, collecting those deliveries behind the stumps and throws, and everything else. That is when he very smartly decreased the workload as a wicketkeeper. Instead, he did some small reaction drills, which kept him sharp and his gloves lightning fast.”
Dhoni’s unorthodox dexterity and wits behind the stumps, however, hold him in good stead throughout his international career up until 2019 and even thereafter with the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, effecting a whopping 1286 dismissals in 959 professional matches as a wicket-keeper.
‘The best wicket-keeper I’ve seen’
Sridhar, however, picked former India wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha as the best glovesman he had coached in his career.
“Right up there. I would say he’s one of the best wicketkeepers I have personally spent time with and worked with. Very coachable, knows what he wants to work on. Great pair of gloves. Terrific person to have in the team. Great team man and all that apart, the commitment he brought as a wicketkeeper to the team,” remarked Sridhar.
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“He was not the best of chirpers; he just stood silently behind the stumps, but the confidence he gave to the captain and the bowlers that ‘Saha is there behind the stumps’ was enormous. I have not seen him drop much, to be very honest, or miss much. He’ll be in my top two, if not top. I’ll always say he’s the best wicketkeeper I have seen from close quarters. Wriddhiman Saha as a wicketkeeper alone, top, number one”.
Saha featured in 40 Tests for India between 2010 and 2021, recording 91 catches and 12 dismissals in his profile.
