Worst days of Indian cricket: Harbhajan Singh after Greg Chappell says he groomed MS Dhoni's finishing skills

Greg Chappell didn’t have a memorable stint with the Indian team as his tenure was marred with many rifts and controversies. The Australian’s tenure with the Indian team was between 2005 and 2007, where he was involved in many spats, including the most controversial one with the then skipper Sourav Ganguly.

According to many Indian fans, Chappell coaching stint with Team India can be regarded as darkest days of the national side. Meanwhile, Chappell, while recollecting his tenure, heaped praise on MS Dhoni and said that he is the most powerful batsman which the Australian coach has ever seen.

Chappell recalled a match against Sri Lanka in 2005 and said he had challenged Dhoni to hit along the ground. Dhoni was smashing bowlers to the cleaners in that match and Chappell revealed that he always challenged the wicketkeeper-batsman to finish matches for India.

The world is aware of the fact that Indian players, who played during the Chappell era, didn’t share a good camaraderie with him. Responding to Chappell’s comments on Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh did not shy away from taking a dig at the Australian.

Harbhajan Singh wrote on his Twitter, “He asked Dhoni to play along the ground coz coach was hitting everyone out the park. He was playing different games #worstdaysofindiancricketundergreg.”

Greg Chappell heaped praise on MS Dhoni’s 183-run knock

Chappell, while reminiscing Dhoni’s 183-run knock against the Lankans, also opined that it was power hitting at the best. He also revealed that there used to be a blooming smile on Dhoni’s face whenever the Ranchi batsman used to finish matches for Team India.

“I remember his knock of 183 against Sri Lanka and how he tore them apart. It was power hitting at its very best. The next match was in Pune. I asked MS, ‘why don’t you play along the ground more instead of trying to hit every ball to the boundary’. We were chasing 260 odd and were in a good position and Dhoni was playing a contrasting inning to the one he had played just a couple of days before.

“We still needed 20 runs to win and Dhoni asked me, through 12th man RP Singh if he could hit sixes. I told him not until the target was in single digit. When we needed six runs to win, he finished the game with a six,” said Chappell.

“I always used to challenge him if he could finish the game. There used to be a booming smile on his face, whenever he used to score the winning runs. He is definitely the best finisher the game has ever seen,” Chappell signed off.