MS Dhoni has always been known for his calm and composed nature, giving him the title of ‘Captain Cool’. However, one instance of Dhoni losing his temper has emerged in R Sridhar’s book, ‘Coaching Beyond’.
Sridhar, who became the fielding coach of Team India in 2014, narrated an incident from the same year when India faced West Indies at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
“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 absolutely shoddy on the field. MS was furious at what he perceived to be lack of effort and dipping fitness standards,” Sridhar wrote in his book.
After losing the 1st ODI, Team India took the second one by 48 runs but frailties persisted. Had it not been for the captain’s unbeaten 51 off 40 balls, India would have struggled to reach 263/7. Dhoni was very upset with the team’s performance as after the match he 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 on the winning side, but we could have lost this.”
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Sridhar revealed once the team returned to the dressing room, 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, no matter what name they answer to. That showed me the kind of fielding culture he was looking to establish in white-ball cricket,” he added.