Michael Hussey says he admired MS Dhoni for his ability to release pressure from players

What’s the Story?

Former Australian batsman Michael Hussey has praised former India captain MS Dhoni for his calm demeanour on the field and enabling the younger Indian players to play with a free mind.

“I think the thing I admired about Dhoni was that he had this great ability to take the pressure off the players, especially the young Indian players. You could see in the dressing room, that they were trying so hard to execute, but in the team huddle, Dhoni would quite often say, “let’s just smile today. Go and enjoy the game. Try and execute your skills. Some days you will win. Some days you won’t. And you could see a young Indian player, almost relaxing on hearing that,” Hussey told Cricbuzz in a video interview.

In case you didn’t know....

Hussey and Dhoni spent several seasons playing in the same team at the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL. There were also reports in the early part of 2015 indicating that the 35-year-old wicket-keeper batsman was keen on roping him as a replacement for Duncan Fletcher as the head coach of the side

While that did not materialise, one could see that Hussey had it in him to coach a side, when he was at the helm as the Sydney Thunder won Big Bash title.

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The heart of the matter

The former middle-order batsman further added that at the top level, cricket was more of a mental game and the truly great players, found ways to separate all the issues surrounding them and walk out and do what was needed on the field and cited the example of Ricky Ponting, who he felt had that ability.

What’s next?

Now that Dhoni has given up captaincy, it remains to be seen if he passes on the knowledge and plays as active a role in grooming a younger player in the squad. Surely, some of the cricketers coming into the Indian setup would look forward to assistance from him and learn from him, for as long as he plays for India.

Author’s Take

It is nice to see Hussey reveal aspects about Dhoni, which is talked about a lot but is not known much from another player’s perspective. Often young Indian players come into international cricket and feel if they don’t belong here, but such calming advice would allow those players to remain patient and try and deliver.