Even God couldn’t help if MS Dhoni didn’t find you good enough: S Badrinath

Former Tamil Nadu batsman S Badrinath has seen Mahendra Singh Dhoni from close quarters, especially during his stint with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). While S Badrinath was always a technically correct batsman in the Rahul Dravid mould, there was no dearth of support for him at CSK, especially from his skipper MS Dhoni.

“Dhoni always felt that roles are very important, and most of the time, mine was to get the team out of tough situations. My role was there in the middle order. The biggest strength of Dhoni is that he gives players that extra chance. If Dhoni believes Badri is good, that’s it. Badri is there. Once he believes it’s right, he sticks to the process. ‘I will give him chances, let him prove himself,’” S. Badrinath quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

But the former CSK batsman was quick to add that if MS Dhoni doesn’t see a role for a player in the team, ‘not even God’ could help him.

“Similarly, if he believes you are not good enough, even God cannot help you. He has his own mindset and sticks to it no matter what,” S. Badrinath said about the CSK and former India skipper.

S. Badrinath notched up 10245 runs in first-class cricket at a phenomenal average of 54.49 with 32 hundreds. But he only managed to play two Tests and seven ODIs for India.

In the Indian Premier League (IPL), S Badrinath appeared in 95 games for Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and scored 1441 runs at an impressive average of 30.65.

“Irrespective of how we’d performed, the owners treated us the same. Plus, we always had an amazing camaraderie and team environment… our get togethers, the bosses would always be like ‘we know you’re a champion side’. We had MS Dhoni as our captain so it flowed from the top to MS Dhoni and to the team,” S. Badrinath said about the team culture in CSK.

MS Dhoni has not played a competitive game since July 2019

S Badrinath interacted with MS Dhoni at a CSK preparatory camp before the coronavirus pandemic-imposed lockdown and the veteran felt that MS Dhoni’s physical fitness would have a big say on his future.

“It’s important he chooses. His body is also something that has gone through quite a bit. There’s a reason why he doesn’t play First-Class cricket or Test cricket because his back has also troubled him. It happens with any keeper, once you’ve played so much cricket under so much stress,” S Badrinath felt.

“He’s probably taking stock of how much he’s left in him. A player of his calibre, nobody should decide whether he should play the T20 World Cup, he should play IPL. It’s upto MS Dhoni to decide what he wants to decide. Right now, there is too much speculation going around as well, most of it is not true,” S. Badrinath added.