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Yograj Singh lauds Dhoni as a fearless captain and shares a vivid memory of Dhoni’s bold reaction after being hit by Johnson in 2009.
Yograj Singh commented on MS Dhoni leadership. (Image: Screengrab)
After previously making scathing remarks about MS Dhoni, accusing the former Indian skipper of cutting short Yuvraj Singh’s career, Yograj Singh has now changed his tone, praising Dhoni as a fearless leader.
The father of the legendary all-rounder, in a video interview on Unfiltered by Samdish on YouTube, opened up about his thoughts regarding one of India’s greatest captains, Dhoni. Yograj reckons that the wicketkeeper-batter from Ranchi was an extremely motivated individual as a leader and had a fearless nature to him.
“I find Dhoni as a very motivated captain who can tell people what to do. The best thing about him was that he is a fearless man,” Yograj shared.
Yograj even recalls the time when MS Dhoni got struck on the helmet by a lethal bounce off Australia’s Mitchell Johnson, but the captain remained unfazed and hit back strongly.
“If you remember against Australia, he was hit on the grill by Mitchell Johnson; he hit here and he stood like this and the next ball pulled him for a six,” he commented.
The instance Yograj is referring to is likely the 2nd ODI between India and Australia that took place in Nagpur in 2009. Dhoni, who was facing Johnson, had parried the delivery for a single but whilst taking the run, the Aussie pacer had come in between, resulting in a clash. Dhoni was not pleased by this and gave a death stare to the Australian pacer, a race instance from the skipper who is known to be a cool customer.
Dhoni had gone on to score 124 off 107, while the likes of Gautam Gambhir hit 76 and Suresh Raina chipped in with 62 as India went on to set a target of 355 runs. The Australian batting unit could not come close to the target as they were bundled out for just 255 runs, giving India the win by 99 runs.
Dhoni went on to become India’s most successful captain as he went on to win the ODI World Cup in 2011 and the Champions Trophy in 2013 in addition to the T20 World Cup in 2007. Even today, despite being retired from the international stage, he’s still got that cricketing brain which makes him an absolute weapon to have to lead your side.
