'He broke his two fingers' - Robin Uthappa recalls his first introduction to MS Dhoni's power-hitting abilities

MS Dhoni is known for his humble and down-to-earth nature worldwide. Despite achieving a lot on the cricket field, the legendary cricketer remains humble and is never seen as arrogant on the field. Shedding light on Dhoni’s simplicity, former India and Chennai Super Kings player Robin Uthappa revealed that the simplicity of ‘Captain Cool’ hasn’t changed over the years.

Uthappa has seen Dhoni from the beginning of his career and played under his captaincy in the Indian team and CSK. Uthappa was a part of the Indian team which won the 2007 ICC T20 World Cup and 2008 CB series under MS Dhoni’s leadership. Talking about Dhoni’s simplicity, Uthappa called him the most uncomplicated person in the world.

“His simplicity is something that’s always been there, and it’s something that hasn’t changed. He’s just as simple today as he was the first time I met him. Dhoni is the most uncomplicated person in the world,” said Uthappa on an episode of ‘My Time With Heroes’ titled ‘My Time With Dhoni on JioCinema.

He further shared the story of meeting Dhoni for the first time at an Indian camp at NCA Bangalore. The 37-year-old revealed that other players at the camp were left awestruck by Dhoni’s sheer power as he broke two fingers of a bowler.

“The first time I saw MS was in 2003 at an India camp at NCA Bangalore. He batted against Munaf Patel when he used to bowl fast with the sling action. Other fast bowlers were also bowling. MS was batting and hitting long sixes off them. He ended up injuring S Sriram. Sriram was bowling to him, and Dhoni stepped out and hit the ball extremely hard,” Uthappa revealed.

“Sriram touched it with his hand, and the ball went 10-20 yards back. We thought Sriram was running after the ball, but he ran past it straight into the dressing room because he broke two fingers. We wanted to see how much power MS had, which was explosive. At that moment, I knew he was going to play for India. He’s a special batsman,” he added.

He takes responsibility for every outcome, whether it is a win or a loss: Robin Uthappa

The 2007 T20 World Cup champion further disclosed Dhoni’s peculiar eating habits.

“We used to always eat together. We had a group: Suresh Raina, Irfan Pathan, RP Singh, Piyush Chawla, Munaf (Patel), MS and me. We would order dal makhni, butter chicken, jeera aloo, gobi and rotis. But MS is a very rigid person when it comes to eating. He would eat butter chicken but without the chicken, only with the gravy! When he ate chicken, he wouldn’t eat the rotis. He is quite weird when it comes to eating,” recalled the 37-year-old with a hearty laugh. 

The Karnataka-born cricketer further revealed the secret behind MS Dhoni’s successful career as a captain and said that he takes responsibility for every outcome.

“He has sharp instincts, and he backs his instincts. That’s why he’s been such a successful captain. He takes responsibility for every outcome, whether it is a win or a loss. If he takes a bad decision because of his instincts, the man can’t sleep for a few days. He starts overthinking. If a good captain’s instincts are sound 4 or 5 out of 10 times, Dhoni’s instincts are sound eight times or nine times.” 

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