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File Pic: Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni (TOI Photo)<\/p>\n
NEW DELHI: Long before he became one of India\u2019s most successful captains, MS Dhoni<\/a> was already being quietly tracked by Sourav Ganguly, who has now revealed how the wicketkeeper-batter was pushed quickly through the system after impressing the then India captain.Speaking on Raj Shamani\u2019s podcast, Ganguly said Dhoni\u2019s rise was not accidental. The former skipper personally travelled to Jamshedpur to watch him during domestic cricket before the final selection call was made.Ganguly watched Dhoni before selectionGanguly revealed that he delayed the decision on Dhoni\u2019s inclusion until he could assess him himself. \u201cI had to see him before taking the final call. So, stalled that decision for a few days,\u201d he said.The visit convinced him. \u201cWe watch full matches. When Dhoni used to play, I had gone to Jamshedpur to watch him. He did not even know,\u201d Ganguly added, recalling how closely the management monitored emerging talent.The former captain also credited ex-selector Saba Karim<\/a> for first highlighting Dhoni\u2019s power-hitting. \u201cSaba Karim told me, \u2018He hits a lot of sixes.\u2019 So we picked him straight from there for India A. He played his first match at Wankhede Stadium in my team. He made a hundred and was hitting sixes to the roof,\u201d Ganguly said.<\/p>\n What do you think about the approach of fast-tracking exceptional talent in sports?<\/p>\n \u2018Whoever is good has to be fast-tracked\u2019That India A innings removed any remaining doubt. Ganguly said the management believed exceptional players should not be held back in the system.\u201cWe had to take him. Whoever is good has to be fast-tracked. You cannot leave him. If you keep cooking him slowly from behind, he will finish,\u201d Ganguly said, explaining the philosophy that shaped India\u2019s transition during his captaincy.Dhoni\u2019s ODI debut came against Bangladesh in Chattogram in December 2004 and ended in disappointment when he was run out for a duck. But Ganguly stayed convinced. Months later, he promoted Dhoni to No. 3 against Pakistan in Visakhapatnam. Dhoni smashed 148 off 123 balls, announcing himself on the international stage.Ganguly said the principle was simple: \u201cIf you play with people above your level, your game will rise. If you play below, your game will go down.\u201dThat belief helped shape the careers of players like Yuvraj Singh<\/a>, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag \u2014 and most notably, Dhoni.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"File Pic: Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni (TOI Photo) NEW DELHI: Long before he became one of India\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":966387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4101],"tags":[269801,1406,269799,169361,43158,269800,8054,269802,27833,79,16,15,21918,77365],"class_list":{"0":"post-966386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-captaincy-philosophy","9":"tag-cricket","10":"tag-dhoni-debut","11":"tag-india-a-team","12":"tag-india-cricket","13":"tag-jamshedpur-cricket","14":"tag-ms-dhoni","15":"tag-saba-karim","16":"tag-sourav-ganguly","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-virender-sehwag","21":"tag-yuvraj-singh"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116589334871561242","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=966386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/966387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=966386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=966386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=966386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}