MS Dhoni, Marcus Stoinis
MS Dhoni, Marcus Stoinis. (Photo: Twitter)

Australia all-rounder Marcus Stoinis revealed a funny incident he experienced with former India captain MS Dhoni, who recently led the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to their third IPL title win after they became victorious in the IPL 2021 in UAE.

Marcus Stoinis became one of the most vital cogs for the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Capitals (DC) in the last two seasons of the popular T20 league. Delhi Capitals invested in Stoinis after he was released from Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and it paid rich dividends as DC made it into their maiden IPL final in IPL 2020.

They almost repeated the feat in IPL 2021, only to lose both their qualifying matches, first to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and then to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Stoinis also picked up an injury that led to him not playing a handful of games in the vital second half of the UAE leg of IPL 2021.

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MS Dhoni, IPL T20
MS Dhoni. (Photo: IPL)

MS Dhoni Was Actually Very Honest With Me: Marcus Stoinis

In a conversation with The Grade Cricketer’s YouTube channel on Wednesday, Marcus Stoinis recalled how MS Dhoni once told him about Chennai Super Kings (CSK)’s bowling and fielding plans for him.

The Aussie joked it was both a compliment and a “little dig”, but he took it as praise. He said:

“He was actually very honest with me. He understood me very well and he sort of said how they (CSK) would try to bowl to me and how he tried to set the fields for me. [It] was both a compliment but also a little dig where I have to figure out which way to take it and I’m taking it as a compliment (chuckles).”

Marcus Stoinis
Marcus Stoinis (Image Credit: Twitter)

He further revealed how MS Dhoni puts every finisher in two categories – those who take the game deep and those who take risks early – and how he goes about his planning for both of them.

Stoinis added: “It was very interesting he did say that it’s very obvious how some people want to take some responsibility and stay until the end whereas some people are willing to take the risk early to, sort of, either try and get ahead of the game or walk off and he identifies that within the team. Like for me, I am trying to get there towards the end.

Marcus Stoinis
Marcus Stoinis (Image Credit: Twitter)

So he (Dhoni) is just squeezing me at the start until he gets the idea, that “Alright, he (Stoinis) is ready to go, I am going to move them (the fielders) back sort of a thing.” Whereas with other guys he won’t do that because he’s like “I know they are going to hit at the start so I am going to let them either win the game or get out”. And he then sort of spoke about his philosophy on that and what he tries to do.”

“Work On Your Weakness As Long As It’s Not Taking Anything Away From Your Strength” – MS Dhoni’s Advice To Marcus Stoinis

Though Stoinis and Dhoni have faced-off multiple times in the Indian Premier League, the last time their teams went head-to-head was in this year’s Qualifier 1 where Stoinis didn’t play due to an injury, and Dhoni played a vintage cameo (18 off 6) to lead CSK to the final.

Marcus Stoinis also revealed his conversations with the CSK captain about off-field training and putting in the spadework.

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MS Dhoni
Image Source: Twitter

He said: “We spoke about training, we spoke about his belief on ‘Work on your weakness as long as it’s not taking anything away from your strength’. So he spoke about how a lot of coaches will ask you to work on things and you might work on the short ball and then you start missing the full ball… which was a really, really nice filter for me for training.”

Marcus Stoinis is currently in the UAE representing Australia in the T20 World Cup. MS Dhoni, meanwhile, is with India as a team mentor.

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