Do you think I'm mad? When Kuldeep Yadav irked 'Captain Cool' MS Dhoni
Mumbai: There are very few cricketers who can remain calm such as Mahendra Singh Dhoni on the cricket field. Not only senior players such as Virat Kohli have benefited from his calm demeanour but also youngsters of Team India have dealt pressure without much hassle.
However, there have also been times when the veteran wicket-keeper batsman has lost his cool. One incident with Manish Pandey during the 2017-18 T20I tour of South Africa was a reminder and Kuldeep Yadav recalled another.
The Uttar Pradesh spinner, who has been one of the mainstays in Team India’s limited overs set-up, recently appeared on Vikram Sathaye’s show named ‘What the Duck 3’ alongside Yuzvendra Chahal and spoke about the time he irked captain cool.
The Men in Blue were playing Sri Lanka in a T20I match held at Indore during December 2017 and batting first the hosts posted a mammoth score of 260 on board, thanks to Rohit Sharma’s fiery ton.
But the Kohli-less Indian team couldn’t do much during their defence as the opposition came out all guns blazing. The young chinaman, in particular, was being heavily targeted and even mistimed shots started finding the boundaries.
Dhoni, then came to Kuldeep’s rescue, requesting him to make some field changes but the 23-year-old refused to accept his advice. Dhoni lost his cool and said, “Kya main pagal hu yaha pe, main 300 ODI khela hu” which translates to “Do you think I’m mad? I’ve played 300 ODIs,” Kuldeep recalled.
The change in field finally bore fruit as Kuldeep ended with figures of 54-3 in his quota after being smacked for 45 runs in his first three. In the end, Rohit Sharma and co comfortably emerged as winners by 88 runs.
