Sridhar has revealed this in his book ‘Coaching Beyond: My Days with the India Cricket Team’.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is one of the best Indian cricketers of all time. A cricketer who created fans with his leadership skills and batting style. But Dhoni has been criticized the most for his slowness in scoring.
Former fielding coach R Sridhar has revealed an incident in which he was irritated by coach Ravi Shastri Dhoni’s approach. The revelation is in his book ‘Coaching Beyond: My Days with the India Cricket Team’.
The incident took place in the ODI against England at Lord’s. England scored 323 runs thanks to Joe Root’s century. Batting in reply, India lost three wickets while adding 60 runs. The then captain Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina were at the crease.
Kohli returned after putting on an 80-run partnership and soon Raina also reached the pavilion. “Dhoni had only bowlers in the group when he got to the last 10 overs of the game. They needed 13 runs in an over to win. But even though Dhoni was at the crease, he managed to score only 20 runs in the first six overs. Dhoni completed 10,000 runs in that ODI. We all rejoiced at his achievement. But we also wanted to know why Dhoni didn’t try to hit the target,” Sridhar wrote.
Dhoni scored 37 runs off 59 balls. There were only two boundaries in the innings. Sridhar also recalled how Shastri was irritated by Dhoni’s approach.
“Ravi got very angry. And not just because they lost by 86 runs. In losing without even putting up a fight. “Didn’t even try to get close to the winning target,” Sridhar noted.
Sridhar also explained about the team meeting held after the match.
“The decider of the series was at Headingley. Everyone arrived including the support staff from the previous day’s team meeting. I knew that Ravi would go for harsh words. ‘No matter who you are, there should never be another instance of losing the match without making an effort to win it. It won’t happen under me. If anyone does, it will be their last match under me. You can lose a game, don’t be ashamed of it, but don’t lose without fighting,’ Ravi said,”.