MS Dhoni captained Ravichandran Ashwin’s Chennai Super Kings team as he began his IPL career.
An icon in Indian cricket, Ravichandran Ashwin is one of the best spinners in history. Ashwin began his cricket career as an off-spinner with the Chennai Super Kings, but he advanced fast through the ranks to become a potent force for Team India. He is still a vital member of the Indian Test team today. The player, born in Tamil Nadu, was lucky to have worked with the late great MS Dhoni. Over the last fifteen years or so, Ashwin has attempted to pick Dhoni’s brains, but he has largely received the same advice: “to continue being funky.”
In an open confession, Ravichandran Ashwin stated in a RevSportz discussion that Dhoni most likely didn’t even know who he was throughout the first year. However, Ashwin’s development as a powerplay bowler at CSK began under his direction.
“I believe Dhoni was unaware of my existence for the first year. That’s Dhoni. I don’t think he knew, or maybe he knew and didn’t really. I’ve been in close quarters with him for over 15–16–17 years, and his behaviour from 2008–09 is still the same as in 2024. That fascinates me because I recall that 2010 Eden Gardens game where he was struck in the arm by Shane Bond.
“I’ve got a wicket. In one game, I managed to get Bond out, but he was hit in the arm and went out of the side. However, I think I’ve started the IPL very well. He was dismissed, and Suresh Raina took charge of the team. This is meant to be my first full season in the IPL. They likely hold slightly different perspectives on how to deal with people, in my opinion. I did not use the Powerplay to bowl.
Because I was on the same squad as Mutthiah Muralitharan, I bowled a little bit later and ultimately bowled at death in Bangalore. I’ve not been enjoying myself. There were three times that I had failed the team. Dhoni then took the lead. However, he took up the puzzle as soon as he returned to captain the side,” Ravichandran Ashwin remarked.
“I believe he said, ‘I wish that guy were mine.'” After I returned, he used me with the new ball again, having used me against Adam Gilchrist during the Powerplay, which I got out of in Chennai. And for several more years afterwards, he employed me in those same capacities. Even as an Indian player, he used me in the batting Powerplay. Thus, I think that’s a pretty interesting belief that he held, and he told me things very straightforwardly,” he continued.
The one piece of advice that Dhoni had for Ashwin was to keep reinventing himself. Even at 37 years old, Ravichandran Ashwin keeps changing his bowling to make himself a difficult opponent for hitters.
“Your ability to try new things and be funky is your greatest strength, he would constantly say. Therefore, don’t alter that for anyone else. I believe I mentioned it during the book launch as well. After Delhi’s match against CSK in Dubai, I approached him and asked him, “How do you find it?” I’ve got that backspin down pat. “You are always like that,” he said. You have been strong in it. Recall that you are still quirky. Recall that you are still working on your variations. This is what he told me fifteen years ago, I thought.
“The man kept observing the same thing. After a little silence, he spoke to me once more, “You know what? I know what you are thinking, but that is your strength.” Thus, keep expressing yourself and being funky. Perhaps he is seeing more than just the cricket. He perceives things more from the perspective of mental capacity or strength. And it turns out, he did the same thing for CSK with Tushar Deshpande. Thus, he keeps doing that. He keeps choosing actors and placing them into roles that suit them well,” he claimed.
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