Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden feels MS Dhoni can easily lead the Australian team. Hayden observed Dhoni’s leadership from close quarters while playing with him for the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.
Dhoni has a fantastic record as an IPL captain, leading CSK to five titles. Furthermore, Dhoni led India to glory in the 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 ODI World Cup, and 2013 Champions Trophy. Dhoni is known to keep calm during crunch situations of the game and mostly gets the best out of his players.
Meanwhile, MS Dhoni scored 161 runs in 11 innings of IPL 2024 at an average of 53.67 and a blistering strike rate of 220.55 and thus played a key role in adding the finishing touches.
“Dhoni is exactly what I was saying before about. He can easily sit in Australian dressing room and easily captain that dressing room because he believes that he is not bigger than anyone else,” Hayden told Sports Vikatan.
“He’ll collect bags, he’ll throw cricket balls. He’s a very humble individual. And he works hard at the team and not about promoting MS Dhoni. You’ll never hear him telling people how great he is or what he’s achieved. That is MS Dhoni’s X-factor. You look at Australia and go ’25 million people. How did they win the World Cup against us?’ MS Dhoni… he just finds a way to galvanise people together and he does it in a way that is nothing about ego, not about self-promotion,” he added.
Hayden said Dhoni is a perfect team man and never boasts about his personal achievements.
“Coming from a very small village and finding a way to the hearts of India and hearts of Chennai in particular. Thala will remain the iconic leader of this franchise forever. But to hear him saying how great he is… you don’t even hear from MS Dhoni. And that’s his charm and X-factor as well. Team before anyone and everyone loves that,” Hayden said.
Dhoni will turn 43 in July but he is still fit as a fiddle. The veteran batter batted at his absolute best in IPL 2024 as he made a big impact despite facing fewer deliveries.
