‘MS Dhoni’s reading of angles is out of the world’: Venkatesh Iyer recounts former CSK captain’s plan that got him out in IPL 2023 | Cricket News
While MS Dhoni may have left his captaincy days behind him, Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer described an incident of the Chennai Super Kings talisman’s leadership acumen from his last season as the franchise’s skipper in 2023.
The 30-year-old Iyer, who reunited with KKR during the IPL 2025 mega auction last November with a hefty price tag of Rs 23.75 crore, recounted Dhoni’s moment of “real captaincy” that left him gobsmacked during a CSK-KKR tie in Chennai.
After Dhoni made a subtle adjustment in the field during KKR’s modest 145-run chase at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, the former India captain prevailed in setting up Iyer’s wicket off the very next ball, with Ravindra Jadeja holding onto a catch near the short-third position off Deepak Chahar’s bowling.
“Dhoni took out a fielder from deep square leg and placed him at short third, slightly away from the spot where short third usually is. The [very] next ball, I hit straight into short third’s hands,” Iyer told in an interview with The Cricket Monthly.
Intrigued by Dhoni’s tactics, Iyer approached him to understand his thoughts following KKR’s six-wicket victory. “Post the game I asked Dhoni why he placed that fielder in that spot and he had a proper answer for it. He was trying to understand the impact of the ball from my bat, the angles. His reading of angles is just out of the world, and he knew that if I hit this shot, it had to go in that direction, so he had a fielder put there. This is being proactive. This is real captaincy: understanding what a batter is doing.
“That was the cunning of Dhoni. I could have waited for a couple of balls, but no, the next ball, I hit it there (chuckles) and it just happened. The cameras showed the exact picture of how the field changed and the very next ball I hit there. It is up to the batsman to understand why certain things are being done [on the field],” Iyer remarked.
Dhoni eventually led CSK to their fifth IPL title that season, beating Gujarat Titans in the final, before relinquishing the leadership role for Ruturaj Gaikwad in the IPL 2024 season.
