Sri Lanka's legendary spinner Muttiah Muralitharan showered praises over former Team India skipper MS Dhoni for his captaincy skills. The former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) cricketer expressed his thoughts on how the most attractive part about Dhoni's leadership was that he showed full faith in the bowler and also how he gave him the freedom to set the field according to his preferences.
"Definitely he was a young captain, I would say. It was in the 2007 World Cup that he captained and won. But his theories are very nice to see. Because he will give the ball to the bowler and tell him to set the field and bowl. If it wasn’t working, then he would ask them to give a chance to the field he sets," Muttiah told R Ashwin on his Youtube show DRS with Ash.
The former spinner also revealed that sometimes Dhoni still claps for the bowler even if a good ball gets hit for a six. Muttiah played under Mahi's captaincy in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for CSK.
"He (Dhoni) will clap if a good ball gets hit for a six. He’ll tell the bowler that it’s a good ball, and it doesn’t matter if the batsman has hit you for a six. Batsmen too have the talent to hit," Murali said.
During his two year stint with the Chennai franchise, Muralitharan picked up 40 wickets in the IPL between 2008 to 2010.
"So with that kind of appreciations, he’ll call you alone, to tell you what’s needed instead of doing it in pubic because of those qualities, he has been so successful," Murali further claimed.
"He has the ability to think calmly, it’s because of these plus points that he became such a good leader. Even when he was young, he’d listen to advice (from seniors). He’ll listen to people and then he’ll make the decision at the end of the day. That’s how he used to captain."
"But more than that, he wouldn’t care about how players bat in the IPL. But he wants the players who can win the match for you. That’s how he went about his business," he added.
The 2020 edition of the IPL will be played in the UAE from September 19 - November 10.
The IPL's Governing Council (GC) met on Sunday via video-conference to discuss issues pertaining to the IPL 2020 edition. The 13th edition of the T20 tournament will be staged at three venues (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah) in the UAE.
