File photo of MS Dhoni© BCCI/Sportzpics
One of the sharpest brains in Indian cricket, MS Dhoni is a man known for his tactical brilliance, game awareness, and astute strategies. When it comes to the Decision Review System (DRS), Dhoni barely gets his decisions wrong. His accuracy over DRS calls from behind the stumps saw the technology being renamed on his name as ‘Dhoni Review System’. But, Indian umpire Anil Chaudhary has claimed that though Dhoni is close to accuracy, him getting the DRS calls right isn’t always the case.
“That’s not the case always (Dhoni being right), sometimes it’s the other way around, but he’s close to accuracy. He has a lot of ideas about the game,” umpire Chaudhary told Shubhankar Mishra during a chat on the latter’s YouTube channel.
Chaudhary also held high praise for young Indian wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant for the way he has improved as a keeper over the last few years.
“Rishabh Pant has also improved a lot from earlier days. It’s all about experience – you look at the replays and then reassess your calls,” he added.
“Wicketkeeper has got the best spot to keep an eye, they’re still and can follow the ball’s trajectory. In fact, best umpires sometimes base their decisions on the movement of wicketkeepers because they follow the ball,” he said.
Coming back to Dhoni, Chaudhary said that the former India captain could go on to become a good umpire if he is ready to spend seven hours inside the cricket stadium.
“He’s (Dhoni) close to accuracy. Lot of the times he stops others from appealing. He can become a good umpire provided he’s ready to be inside the ground for seven hours,” he said.
While the decision to become an umpire is purely theoretical, at present, it isn’t even known if Dhoni would be seen wearing the Chennai Super Kings jersey again as a player in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season.
Topics mentioned in this article
