Dhoni’s greatness lies in fact that he still remembers what he was taught then: Saba Karim

Former India cricketer Syed Saba Karim recently revealed one such story when he met Dhoni for the first time and became familiar with his skillsets after becoming a selector for Bihar in the Ranji Trophy.

Mumbai: It is well-known that in his 15-year-long international career, Mahendra Singh Dhoni rose from being an unorthodox keeper-batsman to one of cricket’s all-time greats, but many stories from his life before he broke onto the scene remain untold.

Former India cricketer Syed Saba Karim recently revealed one such story when he met Dhoni for the first time and became familiar with his skillsets after becoming a selector for Bihar in the Ranji Trophy.

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“The first time I saw MS Dhoni, it was his second year in the Ranji Trophy. He used to play for Bihar. I saw him batting and keeping, and I still remember while he was batting, he had that brilliance which we even saw later, playing big lofted shots to a spinner or a pace bowler. For wicket-keeping, the footwork that one should have was lacking a bit. We worked with him on this at that time, and MS Dhoni’s greatness lies in this that he still remembered what he was taught then. When we would chat, he’d speak about it. It was a turning point in MSD’s career where he actually got going. In one-dayers, we started to let him open because his batting was so strong and he used to get quick runs,” said former India cricketer Saba Karim on JioCinema.

Karim then discussed Dhoni’s first series for India where his batting performances convinced the national team selectors to finally give him a chance. The rest, as they say, is history.

The second turning point was the tri-series in Kenya between India, Pakistan, and Kenya. “MS Dhoni got an opportunity to play because Dinesh Karthik was joining the national team. There, MS kept the wickets well and for batting don’t even ask! We played against Pak twice and he batted so well in the series,” he added.

“From there it was a turning point in his career and after that, his name was in the reckoning. I even remember I was in Calcutta at that time, and Sourav (Ganguly) was the captain. I went to meet him and I told him there is this keeper who should come into the Indian team because he was batting so well and was such a safe keeper. Unfortunately, Sourav hadn’t seen MS play just before we toured Pakistan, and he wasn’t selected for that tour. But he was after that.”