‘Sourav Ganguly told me in 2004 that Dhoni will be a star’
New Delhi: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy saw a number of future Indian stars make their debut or cement their positions in the Indian team. One of the most famous names to have made their debut at the time was M.S. Dhoni, who himself would later on establish himself as one of the most successful captains of all time.
Former Kolkata Knight Riders team director Joy Bhattacharya said that Dhoni had caught Ganguly’s eye on his debut tour itself.
“I remember being on a flight to Bangladesh in 2004 and Sourav was just telling me ‘we have this chabuk new batsman’. ‘Chabuk’ means whipped. He said ‘chabuk new batsman’ who has come out. You have to see him, M.S. Dhoni is going to be a star,'” said Bhattacharya in 22 Yarns podcast of Oaktree Sports hosted by Gaurav Kapur on Spotify and Youtube.
The 2004 tour of Bangladesh was Dhoni’s first for India. He however did not catch the eye with the bat on that tour, being run out for a duck on debut. Despite the meagre returns, he was selected for the subsequent home series against Pakistan. In the fifth ODI, he scored 148 off just 123 deliveries.
“One thing he was just fantastic at was that he would just see you and he would know the talent. If you have the talent, he would back you,” Bhattacharya said.
“It didn’t mean that you could not get runs, you could fail, it didn’t matter to him. Because he knew on the day you had the ability to score.”
