Australian all-rounder Marcus Stonis has recently shared some interesting insights into his conversations with former India captain MS Dhoni during IPL 2021 as well.
In a conversation with The Grade Cricketer’s YouTube channel on Wednesday, Marcus Stoinis shared how MS Dhoni once said to him about Chennai Super Kings (CSK)’s bowling and fielding plans for him. He funnily told that it was both a compliment and a “little dig”, but he took it as praise only.
He said: “He was actually very honest with me. He understood me very well and he sort of said how they (CSK) would try to bowl to me and how he tried to set the fields for me. [It] was both a compliment but also a little dig where I have to figure out which way to take it and I’m taking it as a compliment (chuckles).”
“It was very interesting he did say that it’s very obvious how some people want to take some responsibility and stay until the end whereas some people are willing to take the risk early to, sort of, either try and get ahead of the game or walk off and he identifies that within the team. Like for me, I am trying to get there towards the end.
So he (Dhoni) is just squeezing me at the start until he gets the idea that, “Alright, he (Stoinis) is ready to go, I am going to move them (the fielders) back sort of a thing.” Whereas with other guys he won’t do that because he’s like “I know they are going to hit at the start so I am going to let them either win the game or get out”. And he then sort of spoke about his philosophy on that and what he tries to do,” he further added.
“We spoke about training” – Marcus Stoinis on discussion with MS Dhoni
However, both MS Dhoni and Marcus Stoinis have played against each other many times in the cash-rich league. The last time they took on each other was in this year’s Qualifier 1 where Stoinis didn’t feature due to an injury and Dhoni played a crucial cameo (18 off 6) to lead CSK to the final.
Apart from in-field tactics, Marcus Stoinis also revealed, “We spoke about training, we spoke about his belief on ‘Work on your weakness as long as it’s not taking anything away from your strength’. So he spoke about how a lot of coaches will ask you to work on things and you might work on the short ball and then you start missing the full ball… which was a really, really nice filter for me for training.”
“He said the main thing for him was how he controls his breathing and heart rate and that’s what he focusses on to allow him to access his skills because he trusts himself that he’s done the work,” Marcus Stoinis concluded.
However, both Marcus Stoinis and MS Dhoni are currently in the UAE where the former is representing Australia in the T20 World Cup and MS Dhoni has joined Team India as a team mentor.
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