Former Indian Captain MS Dhoni, commonly known as “captain cool, ” is famous for his cool behaviour and calm demeanour. And he rarely lost his control on the cricket field; sometimes, we have witnessed it. Like once Against Australia’s speedster Mitchell Johnson and once in the Indian Premier League over the on-field umpire decision.
Former India’s fielding coach R Sridhar revealed in his book ‘Coaching Beyond’ that Dhoni became very angry with the players in 2014.
R Sridhar wrote, ‘In 2014, Team India was playing the ODI series against the West Indies. India had scored only 263 runs for 7 wickets. In response, the West Indies team was all out for 215 runs. However, the fielding of Indian players was very bad in that match.
“Getting back to my early days with the Indian team… following MS’ inputs, we began to get out fielding house in order with the World Cup in mind. We were playing West Indies at the Feroz Shah Kotla in October 2014 – a match we won comfortably but where we were shoddy on the field. MS was furious at what he perceived to be a lack of effort and dipping fitness standards,” Sridhar, who became the fielding coach in 2014, wrote in his book ‘Coaching Beyond.’
In that series, the Indian team lost the first match and trailed the series by 0-1. Although the Indian team won the second match by 48 runs, the fielders haven’t played to their full potential in that match. Batting first, Indian struggled to set the total 263/7 in that match; however, in the chase, the visitors were in a good position at a time 170/2 but exploded their 8 wickets to reach 215 and lost the encounter by 48 runs.
After the match, Dhoni said: “I feel quite a few things are missing. We have to pull our socks up. We have not played to our potential. This game is a crucial eye-opener for us. We are winning, but we could have lost this.”
When the team returned to the dressing room, R Sridhar pointed out that the players received quite an earful from MSD. “In the dressing room, he ripped the team to shreds and gave them an ultimatum, making it clear that if they didn’t meet certain standards in fielding and fitness, they would not make the World Cup cut matter what name they answer to. That showed me the fielding culture he wanted to establish in white-ball cricket,” he added.
