Mirpur: Through his efforts in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Team India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has won respect from his South African counterpart Faf Du Plessis.
Du Plessis, who plays for Chennai Super Kings alongside Dhoni, even remarked that he has learned a lot from his teammate.
“I’ve really enjoyed my time in Chennai and my time with MS [Dhoni]. I have been there now for three years. I have learnt quite a bit from him as a captain. He is a very good leader and an inspirational leader and he has had huge success for India. His record speaks for itself.”
However, Du Plessis does not believe in imitating Dhoni’s captaincy style.
“My style of captaincy is completely different to his. But it is nice to play with someone who has been in that role for so many years,” Du Plessis added.
India’s strike bowler and spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who also plays for Chennai Super Kings, was asked whether he rated Du Plessis’ captaincy skills.
“To be really honest, I haven’t seen the way he’s captained. He’s sat out a couple of games as well [in the IPL]. I know Faf pretty well; I know the way he bats and his strengths. I can only prepare for what I’m going to do against Faf, rather than looking at the totality, just knowing what he does against the spinners,” Ashwin said.
Incidentally, while at school, Du Plessis watched South Africa win their first major title, the 1998 ICC knockout event here.
He said: “I was in school and was very young. I have watched it with a lot of interest over the years my team in all these tournaments. It’s irrelevant for this group of players to be looking at past performances. These T20 tournaments are all about what you do on the day.”
He added: “We have been through some really tough situations in this World Cup and been in games that we shouldn’t have probably won, but our resilience and never-say-die attitude has stood us in good stead.”
