In Frame: Former India coach Greg Chappell with Rahul Dravid. (File Photo)
Former Australian batting great Greg Chappell’s stint as the India coach was marred with controversies and many believe it created major rifts among the teammates. Sourav Ganguly and many others have openly slammed the former Australian cricketer in this regard and the latest member to join this long list is India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.
Harbhajan on Wednesday took note of a recent comment made by the Australian in which he claimed how he helped Dhoni evolve into a world-class finisher. Taking a dig at his former coach, Bhaji tweeted, “He asked Dhoni to play along the ground coz (because) coach was hitting everyone out the park.. He was playing different games.”
He asked Dhoni to play along the ground coz coach was hitting everyone out the park.. He was playing different games 😜#worstdaysofindiancricketundergreg 😡😡😡 https://t.co/WcnnZbHqSx
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) May 13, 2020
Chappell, during a Facebook live chat for Playwrite Foundation, stated that he was impressed with Dhoni’s power-hitting display and the ease with which he could play any delivery. He also spoke about the match when the wicketkeeper-batsman scored an unbeaten 183 against Sri Lanka and how he challenged him to hit the ball along the ground.
“I remember his knock of 183 against Sri Lanka and how he tore them apart. It was power hitting at its very best. The next match was in Pune. I asked MS, ‘why don’t you play along the ground more instead of trying to hit every ball to the boundary’. We were chasing 260 odd and were in a good position and Dhoni was playing a contrasting innings to the one he had played just a couple of days before.
“We still needed 20 runs to win and Dhoni asked me, through 12th man RP Singh if he could hit sixes. I told him not until the target was in single digit. When we needed six runs to win, he finished the game with a six,” he said.
“I always used to challenge him if he could finish the game. There used to be a booming smile on his face, whenever he used to score the winning runs. He is definitely the best finisher the game has ever seen,” Chappell said.