During his tenure as captain of the Indian team, MS Dhoni was known to bring the best out of his players. From Rohit Sharma to Virat Kohli, Dhoni oversaw the growth of a lot of young players who have gone to become greats of the game. Even after his retirement from international cricket, Dhoni continues to instill that winning mindsight in the current crop of players. Currently in the last stretch of his career as a cricketer, the former India wicketkeeper-batter is continuously shaping youngsters who are destined to become top cricketers in future.
On Thursday, India defeated Afghanistan by six wickets in the first T20I in Mohali. After the match, India batter Rinku Singh shed light on his chat with Dhoni, and how his learnings have helped him to shape his game as per the requirement of the international game.
"I try to talk to myself, and tell myself that anything can happen when I bat at No. 6. In the last IPL, I spoke to Mahi bhai, and he said the more you remain calm the better it is. Try to see what the bowler is doing and react accordingly. If I think too much, things can go wrong for me (laughs), so I see what the bowler is doing instead," Rinku said on Sports 18 after the match.
Since making his debut last year on the back of a breakthrough IPL campaign, Rinku has had a cracking start to his T20I career, scoring 278 runs from nine innings at a wonderful average of 69.50.
Batting down the order, Rinku has developed a knack of finishing games for India. So far, his T20I scores read -- 38, 37, 22, 31, 46, 6, 68, 14. He also hit an unbeaten 16 during a crucial match-winning partnership with Shivam Dube.
Dube, meanwhile, score an unbeaten 60 as India won the match by 15 balls to spare. After the match, the all-rounder, who plays with Dhoni at CSK, also highlighted the importance of Dhoni in his career of late.
"When I came to bat, I wanted to implement what I have learnt from MS Dhoni about finishing games. I keep speaking to Mahi bhai. He tells me about how to tackle different situations. He has given me two-three tips and rated my batting," Dube told the broadcasters.
"So, I feel if he rates my batting then I'll keep playing well. My confidence went up because of that. In a T20 it's important for a batter to finish games off while chasing so doing for the team felt very good," he added.