Mohammad Kaif reckons Dhoni can still play all formats of the game

Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif had a lot of praise to shower on Jharkhand skipper MS Dhoni recently. The Dhoni-led side defeated the Chhattisgarh team by 78 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy encounter today. Kaif, who was leading the Chhattisgarh team in the fixture, was graceful in defeat as he accepted that it was the innings of MS Dhoni that took the game away from them.

At 43/5 against Chattisgarh at the Eden Gardens, the Jharkhand team was reeling in the game and that’s when Dhoni walked out. He scored a magnificent century and got to the triple figure mark with a six. He took 94 balls to get there and did that striking with 8 fours and 4 sixes. The century was Dhoni’s first ever for the Jharkhand team and his 17th overall in List A cricket.

His knock of 129 that came off 107 balls witnessed him strike the ball at 120.56 and Jharkhand had 243/9 on the board. In response, Chhattisgarh fell short by 78 runs. Soon after the match, it was Mohammad Kaif who opined that Dhoni still has the ability to play in all the three formats of the game. He added that he has been watching him bat since Dhoni’s early days in cricket and knows that it is not easy to be a player like Dhoni overnight.

Interestingly, Dhoni’s first match for Central Zone had come under the leadership of Mohammad Kaif in 2004. He also cited that the Chhattisgarh side would have definitely bowled out Jharkhand for some score around 120 had Dhoni not been there.

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“He has natural abilities which you saw today. I believe he is still good enough for all formats of the game. He is still hitting the ball hard. I have been watching Dhoni from his debut match and always felt you cannot become a ‘Dhoni’ just by practice. We would have bundled them for 120 if Dhoni was not there,” Kaif remarked as per the quotes in TOI.