MS Dhoni: As captain, you don’t believe all players have common sense

Giving a sneak into his captaincy regime, MS Dhoni shared a good chunk of information referring to players and leadership. He said that there is nothing called common sense in cricket. He also shared the highest level of difficulty that he faced as a captain. Surprisingly, it wasn’t something on the field but it was in instigating common sense in some players without hurting their ego.

“The biggest learning during my tenure as a captain was, that a lot of time, I used to think that this is common sense. But no, there is nothing called common sense. You think, ‘Oh, I don’t need to say’ or like ‘Yeh batane ke cheez nehi hai’, but in a team environment, you need to say,” said former Indian skipper MS Dhoni.

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He also spoke about how players differ in the thought process and how they react during different match situations and when is the actual need to step in as a leader.

“There will be a few who are intelligent and they will be like ‘Areh yeh kya bol raha hai, yeh zaroorat nahi hai’. But it’s not for them. They can figure things out. It is for the person who does not understand. But, at the same time, it is very bad to address it to one person, because then he will know that ‘accha yeh toh mujhe hi bol raha hai’ (Okay he has singled me out).”, he added.

He also states that it is very difficult to explain a player when he is not included in the playing XI. He then repeated his Harbhajan Singh-bike theory, which he used prior to the IPL finals against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

“Just before the finals, at the press conference, this guy asked me, ‘Harbhajan Singh was there and he didn’t bowl a single over. He is such an experienced player.’’

And Mahendra Singh Dhoni replied saying, ‘You know I have so many bikes and cars in the garage and I take the ride out, according to what I need. Like, if it’s raining, I’ll take the car and if it’s not, then I’m happy with the bike. So, if I needed Bhajju Bhai at some point of time, I would have made him bowl. I had like seven bowlers. Raina didn’t bowl a single over in this IPL. So, at times, when you don’t need that particular bowler, why to make him bowl?”