Chahal credits MS Dhoni for growth of wrist spinners

Royal Challengers Bangalore spinner Yuzvendra Chahal was left surprised by MS Dhoni’s decision to retire. Yuzi thinks that Dhoni could have stretched his career a bit if not for a sudden break due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A little more than a year after having played for India for the last time, MS Dhoni decided to call it quitson the Independence Day. Chahal admitted the role Dhoni played in the growth of wrist spinners in the last few years.

“Dhoni’s retirement was very shocking news. I think Corona also played a role in this decision, otherwise Dhoni would have played T20 World Cup,” Chahal said in News18 India’s special program Chaupal. I still want him to play. Because of him, Kuldeep Yadav and I succeeded. We used to get a lot of help from him from behind the wicket. If Dhoni was there, 50 percent of my work was already done,” said Chahal.

Chahal debut under MSD’s captaincy and continued to grow under Virat Kohli’s leadership. The fact that Dhoni stayed with the team having relinquished the captaincy helped the newbies like Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav to hone their skills. Dhoni’s valuable inputs and advise from the behind the stumps made a huge impact in how Chahal and Kuldeep set up dismissals in the white-ball formats.

“Dhoni knew how the pitch was behaving. Before the first ball, we knew what the pitch was like because of him. Otherwise, when Dhoni was not there, we would take two overs to understand the pitch,” he said. 

“In the match, since Virat (Kohli) and Rohit (Sharma) were on the boundary, then Dhoni was the nearest senior, he would help us always. Dhoni also helped Kuldeep and I a lot during the tour of South Africa.”

Since Dhoni’s retirement, there have been demands about organizing a farewell game for MSD. However, Chahal decided to leave the issue to the BCCI. “This decision will be taken by the BCCI. Also, what Dhoni wants needs to be considered,” he signed off.