Former national selector Sanjay Jagdale revealed that ex-coach Greg Chappell made an accurate prediction regarding MS Dhoni’s future.
Jagdale revealed an incident when he had a chat with MS Dhoni regarding picking Muttiah Muralitharan’s dusra.
When Jagdale told Chappell about the conversation, the former Australian captain made a prediction that Dhoni is going to be India’s future captain.
Dhoni then went on to lead India in the T20 World Cup in 2007 and also led the team to glory in the inaugural edition, which changed Indian cricket for good.
Speaking to News18, Jagdale said, “I was the selector and manager. And, I was watching the match with the coach Greg Chappell.
Dhoni was padded up and sitting on the staircase. When Muttiah Muralitharan began to bowl round the wicket, I just mentioned to Greg if his ‘doosra’ will be effective bowling from round the wicket. Dhoni told me in Hindi; “Sir, mai aapko yahan se bata doonga, about his doosra (I will tell you from here). And Dhoni explained.”
“I told him about the conversation between me and Dhoni and immediately Greg told me: “Sanjay, he (Dhoni) is your future captain. And he did become the India captain with Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly withdrawing from the Twenty20 World Cup. I will never forget this incident,” Jagdale further revealed.
Strangely, Dhoni was plumbed in front of the wickets by the Sri Lankan legendary spinner, Muralitharan in that match. However, Dhoni went on to dominate Murali in the 2011 World Cup final in Mumbai. Dhoni also promoted himself to number five and stitched a crucial alliance with Gautam Gambhir.
On the other hand, Jagdale added that Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni share a great camaraderie. Kohli used to take a lot of inputs from MS when he took over the captaincy.
“This was before the World Cup in England. I was watching the match from a position that was behind long-off and by the side of the sightscreen. We were ten of us from Indore in the gallery. That was my first international match in three or four years.
“Marcus Stoinis was batting brilliantly and Virat was fielding at long-off, just in front of us. And I could hear Dhoni shouting Chiku (Virat’s nickname) and asking him to shift 15 to 20 feet towards extra cover. This was a remarkable incident with Dhoni asking the India captain (Virat) to move. Virat had no issues with it.
He just moved. This is the respect and rapport they have. Even before Dhoni became the captain, all players had a good equation with Dhoni. I even explained to my friends about what happened on the field and the respect the players have for Dhoni,” Jagdale concluded.
