MS Dhoni's first coach feels his early struggle is the reason he is still grounded

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s school coach Keshav Ranjan Banerjee is a famous man now. Most people in the country who watched MS Dhoni: The Untold story, the biopic of the Indian limited-overs cricketer know and acknowledge Mr Banerjee’s contribution in identifying Dhoni’s talent, showing him the right direction and molding him as a wicketkeeper-batsman. While his student has achieved some unbelievable heights in his career the school PT master is still the same and lives in a MECON Colony in Ranchi.

The movie depicted that he wanted young Mahendra to focus on his keeping more than batting and made sure he spent most of his practice hours with his wicketkeeping gloves. Why was he against Dhoni batting?

In a recent interview with Wisden India Banerjee said, “Previously, small kids used to play everything – football, cricket, basketball. He’s fond of playing tennis-ball cricket. The shots he plays now, he got all of them from there. It’s all natural and nothing has been introduced to him. I believe in natural upbringing. After Class 6, he had learnt how to ’keep well, and although I told him not to bat, he would bat when I was late to practice sessions or when I was out on work.

“I only realised how good he was in Class 8 during an inter-school match where we were playing a quarterfinal. There were four overs left and he had to go at No. 7. He scored about 60 in those four overs. From that match, I realised that he can be moved up the order. In Class 9, he anyway went up the order because some of the seniors passed out. In Class 11 and 12, he started batting at No. 3 and 4.”

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MS Dhoni at various points in his career took intuitive decisions that didn’t really make sense as per the popular opinion when he decided to go with it but eventually proved to be masterstrokes. The most famous one, we remember is handing over the ball to medium pacer Joginder Sharma to bowl the final over in the World T20 2007 final against Misbah-ul-Haq who looked all set to take his team over the line.

“He has always taken surprising decisions, and most times they click. There are no scientific reasons behind it. In the first T20 World Cup in 2007, he gave Joginder Sharma the last over. It’s a crucial decision. If they had lost, they would have brought him down. He became captain of the school in Class 11 and even there he was like that. He always went with gut feeling. Also, nowadays, people get into affairs with girls and do drugs. In his case, he had no affairs with any girls in school. He always concentrated on games and spoke very less. That probably helped him look at things from a different perspective.” The coach said.

We have seen him do a lot of things on the cricket field but isn’t a very open personality outside, he avoids the glare of the media and keeps his personal life to himself. But Keshav said that he talks a lot to his friends and people he is comfortable with. “He’s the kind of a man who’ll answer any question you ask. Suppose you counter or keep asking the same thing again and again, he will still answer without getting angry. Very little does he talk with people he doesn’t know. He talks a lot with friends because he’s more comfortable with them than with any coach.” He said.

Has Dhoni changed from the first time he saw him as a class 6 student now that he has seen most of the glory on and off the cricketing field? “I don’t find any difference in him. In the beginning, he was like that and even now he is. I have seen him struggling from owning a single bat. How he managed that, I know. I guess that’s why he’s very grounded. This character is the same character I saw in Class 6, 7. Even with his father and mother, he speaks very little and to the point. That’s out of respect. The family culture is like that.”

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The wicketkeeper-batsman is 35 now but has maintained his fitness in a way that he continues to possess one of the fastest pair of legs on the cricket field. Talking about his running and fitness the coach said, “With age, fitness goes down. Now he’s 35, his fitness will not be like he’s 30, but he works so hard that he has still managed to stay very fit. Whenever he comes to Ranchi, he goes to JSCA (International Stadium) and does the fitness programme there. The fitness aspect will come down, but when I see him running even I now, I feel like nothing has changed.”