Coach reveals the Yuvi element in the rise of Dhoni

Dhanbad: It was Yuvraj Singh who inspired Mahendra Singh Dhoni to scale the dizzying heights he reached. But Yuvraj didn’t know it. This is the story Dhoni’s guru shared with the TOI, talking about his most famous student, who announced retirement from Test cricket on Tuesday.
“There was a Punjab versus (the then) Bihar under-19 match just before the selection of players for a national camp.That camp was to be held before picking the Indian team for the U-19 World Cup in 2000,” Chanchal Bhattacharya reminisced.
“Dhoni played very well in that match. He top-scored for his team and Yuvraj was the top-scorer for Punjab. While Yuvi was selected for the camp, Mahi’s name was nowhere. He was upset. I told him his fight for a place was not with Yuvraj because Yuvi was not a wicketkeeper. But Mahi was down mentally. So I told him work hard and you’ll get the results one day.”
Bhattacharya said that was the moment he realized this boy would go far. “The way he started giving extra from the next day made it clear that he had tremendous hunger for success. I knew from the start that he was a special talent but that was the time I found he was willing to give everything to reach the summit,” revealed Bhattacharya.
He said though Dhoni’s batting style never adhered to any coaching manual, he didn’t try to correct it. “I did make a few basic changes but I never tried to change his entire technique. Because I believe in Col. Hemu Adhikary’s words: ‘Everyone has his own technique and that’s best for him’.”
Asked how he would rate Dhoni as a Test cricketer, Bhattacharya said: “I would call it a very successful career. No Indian ’keeper has close to five thousand (4876) Test runs and not many have played 90 Tests.”
Talking about his captaincy record, Bhattacharya said it should be seen along with Dhoni’s responsibilities as a wicketkeeper. “A batsman or bowler captain has some time to relax mentally and physically. But a captain who is a wicketkeeper-batsman does a doubly tiring job. Keeping that in mind, he has done extremely well.”