No one can, no one should try to play like MS Dhoni: Sanju Samson

 "No one can" and "no one should try" to play like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson said on Tuesday, rejecting comparisons with the cricket great after taking the IPL by storm with his incredible hitting prowess.

Samson cleared the boundaries at will to power his franchise Rajasthan Royals to two massive wins over Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab, the second one ending in record IPL chase.

After his exploits, Congress MP from Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor, called him the next MS Dhoni.

But Samson did not think so, quite like former India player and BJP MP Gautam Gambhir.

"I am sure that no one can and no one should try to play like him. It's not at all easy to play like MS Dhoni, so leave that aside. I never think of playing like MS Dhoni. He is a legend of Indian cricket, legend of the game," Samson said.

"I only focus on my game, what I can do, how I can do it best and how I can win matches," the Keralite added, again like Gambhir, on the eve of his team's match against Kolkata Knight Riders here.

Responding to Tharoor, Gambhir had said that instead of striving to be the next Dhoni, the 25-year-old must try to be the Sanju Samson of Indian cricket.

With his belligerent knocks of 74 and 85, Samson has again staked his claim for selection in the Indian team.

Asked if he thinks he has done enough to attract the attention of the national selectors, Samson said, "I maybe, I maybe not. The only think I know is I am in good form, my only dream is to win matches for my team, any team I play. My focus is on the IPL right now."

Samson had recently said that he has another 10 years of cricket left in him, a conclusion he came to after a lot of thought and an interaction with Indian captain Virat Kohli during a gym session.

"I am very lucky to be a part of Rajasthan Royals and some very good individuals, good human beings around me. I am a bit deep person and I keep on thinking about my future, also about my life, because everyone will die one day.

"I think I can't play cricket after 10-12 years.

"When I was in gym with the Indian team I met Virat bhai, I keep on asking him different things.

"When he asked me how many years you are going to be play and I said 10, he told me that me 'then give everything to these 10 years and you can have your favourite food from Kerala after that'.

"So I became really dedicated to give my best for the next 10-12 years."

Having performed admirably well over the last few IPL but probably not as much in the domestic circuit, Samson said he has started to understand his game better.

"I have understood my game, it's more of power hitting. So I have been training on my strengths on my power hitting."

He said playing most of his cricket in Kerala and Jaipur has helped him in adapting to the hot and humid conditions of the UAE better.

"I am in a very good space mentally. I have worked closely with our video analyst for four to five months and that really helped me improve."

RR have just pulled off an IPL record chase and asked if his team would prefer batting second in the coming matches, he spoke about their strengths.

"We have a very well-balanced team, good bowling strength, we are confident with our batting lineup, we bat deep with even someone like Shreyas Gopal batting at number nine. But lot depends on the conditions.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Don't blame Dhoni for English defeat: India came face-to-face with reality

By the time MS Dhoni played his first ball in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 match against England on Sunday, India required 104 off 61 balls with six wickets in hand. Now, in today’s times when T20 cricket has pushed the boundaries of the imaginable, that might not seem to be the hardest task for a batsman. However, it’s worth noting the stat that only twice in the 21st century has a chasing team managed to score more than a 100 runs in the final 10 overs of an ODI and win it.
While assess India’s chase yesterday, we must keep this bit of statistic in mind. The odds were very long. So, it barely came as a surprise when India eventually failed to defeat England. But the post-match conversation centred not on the first defeat suffered by Virat Kohli’s team in this World Cup but on the approach taken by MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav in the final overs. Once the loss appeared imminent, the duo set about reducing the margin of defeat. Only two boundaries arrived in 25 balls at one point.
This Dhoni approach was not entirely unfamiliar. Four years ago at the World Cup semifinal against Australia, he protected his wicket even as the required rate mounted. The intention was to take it as deep as possible and then launch an onslaught. Understandably, it did not work against the quality Australian bowling attack. Dhoni was left with a run-a-ball 65 and Australia won by 95 runs.
The former captain has slowed down considerably since. The past acts of bravado live fresh in the memory and fans hanker for them every time he bats in a tight chase, but he’s not the same batsman anymore. In fact, India has been acutely aware of this fact for a few years now. Yesterday was not the first instance of Dhoni being unable to score quickly from the outset.
So, this must raise the question about his batting position. Why must he bat so deep? If Dhoni needs time to build his innings, he should be promoted to number four. But this is another debate that must be familiar to most cricket observers, and no change has been in sight for a couple of years. It is now accepted that the earliest Dhoni arrives to bat is at number five, and that is how things will remain for the rest of this World Cup campaign.
However, it does not help India since no middle-order batsman except Hardik Pandya has the power to boost India’s total at the death. Perhaps the inclusion of Rishabh Pant on Sunday sought to address that issue but the difference between the two sides was acutely captured by another statistic – England hit thirteen sixes to India’s one. That single blow over the boundary came from Dhoni on the first ball of the 50th over, by the time India’s fate had been sealed.
The six, of course, is inextricably tied to Dhoni. There’s nothing quite like him hitting the ball over the boundary, and everyone expects him to hit a few whenever he bats. But the current iteration of Dhoni needs time to get to the stage where he can unload. Unfortunately for him, with age, his capacity to unleash a brutal attack on the opposition has receded dramatically as well. It is difficult to say when that exactly happens, but once it does, your best instincts leave you in little time.
This is the battle Dhoni and every batsman before him have had to face. Some are able to extend their careers by exploring newer dimensions, others are bound to their game and are unable to break the shackles. This does not make Dhoni a lesser cricketer. In fact, his years of experience have helped India in other ways — Dhoni’s guidance for captain Virat Kohli and wrist-spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal have proved inestimably valuable.
Nevertheless, India is stuck with a confused middle order, bereft of heft, and the question of Dhoni looming large over it. It is not Kedar Jadhav and Dhoni’s fault when they cannot score 14-15 runs per over. But India left them too many to chase on Sunday, and the necessity of going hard earlier meant that the accumulators had to negotiate an even more challenging situation later on. The problem of the correct batting approach was identified with the Indian side much before the World Cup and the chickens have finally come home to roost.
So, where do India and Dhoni go from here? We are unlikely to see any dramatic changes now but the strength in bowling should mean that the team does not find itself having to score in the excess of 300 often. And if the situation does occur, Rohit Sharma and Kohli will have to do the heavy lifting. This is the plan with which India set store and one defeat should not alter it dramatically. Dhoni, of course, can still assist in a run chase. But to expect him to blast away like he used to do in his heyday is an unreasonable expectation now.
Priyansh is a writer based in New Delhi. He tweets @Privaricate

Dhoni moves SC against Amrapali Group over cheating, seeks Rs 40 cr in dues

Former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has moved the Supreme Court seeking possession of a penthouse in an Amprapali project, and also to include his name in the list of creditors of the real estate company.
Dhoni in his plea informed the court that he had booked the penthouse in Amrapali Safari in Ranchi. Simultaneously, the management of the Amrapali Group also engaged him as the brand ambassador for promoting projects of the group.

Dhoni has said that he has been cheated, as the real estate company did not clear his outstanding -- the amount promised for its brand promotion -- and also did not grant possession of the penthouse.
Last month, Dhoni had approached the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Amrapali Group to pay him Rs 40 crore due towards his services to the real estate company as brand ambassador.
Dhoni endorsed the real estate company from 2009 to 2016. He appeared in several advertisements promoting the brand. But Amarapali Group ran into financial difficulties and 46,000 homebuyers, who have already paid for their respective properties, moved the apex court seeking court's intervention for the handover of properties.
While Dhoni entered into multiple agreements with the Amrapali Group, his wife Sakshi was also associated with the charitable wing of the group.
In an earlier order, the apex court had ordered attachment of the properties of the real estate group besides those of its associate companies and their directors.
On January 25, the court directed the government-owned NBCC (India) Ltd, formerly known as National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd, to start the process of completing two stalled Amrapali housing projects.
Tightening the screws on the Amrapali group, the Supreme Court sent its CMD Anil Sharma and two directors Shiv Deewani and Ajay Kumar to police custody on February 28. The hearing is progress in the case.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)