Kiran more and Kaif reflect on early MS Dhoni spark

Kiran More, Mohammad Kaif and Gary Kirsten reflect on MS Dhoni’s early promise, breakthrough innings against Pakistan, and calm leadership style that helped him shape Indian cricket’s modern era

Hyderabad: Former India wicketkeeper and ex-national selector Kiran More said that he felt “this boy (MS Dhoni) was really something special, someone different” when the selection panel was looking for an aggressive player who could come and hit fours and sixes, utilise the powerplay and also bat in the middle-overs.

Speaking on the JioStar special show 7 Shades of MS Dhoni, More said that at that time, the Indian batting line-up already had some big names like Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.

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“Yuvraj Singh was also there. But I felt we needed an aggressive player, who could come and hit fours and sixes,” he said.

“See, the top players were all of one mould. But MS Dhoni’s strength — that power-hitting — we were looking for a different kind of player like that, to balance the batting order. If you want to make 100 in 10 overs, you can,” More said.

“We gave many wicketkeepers chances, but the spark we saw in Dhoni — I felt this boy is something special, something different. We were taking chances. He was raw. From there, we picked him and gave him a chance,” he added.

For his part, another former India star, Mohammad Kaif, spoke about Dhoni’s iconic breakthrough performance against Pakistan during the tour of India in 2005 and the surprise promotion up the batting order.

“Matches against Pakistan are always pressure matches — Ganguly thought, let’s promote MS Dhoni up the order. He might play a cameo. No one knew he would hit 140. No one in the dressing room knew,” Kaif recalled.

“First surprise — he’s at No.3. Then he starts hitting. He used to hit lofted shots — over point, over mid-off. We thought this guy can’t play a long innings. How wrong we were! As his innings progressed, he kept hitting — in the powerplay, spinners, fast bowlers — everyone got hit. After the powerplay, he still kept playing his shots, rotated strike, hit more,” Kaif said.

“Dhoni knew he had to play fast, but also knew that a quickfire 30 wasn’t enough. He knew it was a do-or-die match. If he flopped at No.3, he wouldn’t get further chances because he had already gotten a few earlier. He didn’t play under pressure; he played his natural game,” he said.

Former India coach Gary Kirsten, reflecting on Dhoni’s leadership and cricketing instincts, said that his initial view on MS Dhoni’s leadership approach was that there was a lot of bravery in how he was going to take the team forward, and he wasn’t shy to approach senior players about what his views were and how he wanted the team to be successful.

“Dhoni assessed the situation in the game and played accordingly. I think he was the best at that. His assessment of the game situation and how he needed to play — he was very difficult to get out, especially in white-ball cricket when chasing,” Kirsten said.

“The wa