Stephen Fleming opens up about his mate MS Dhoni

Stephen Fleming has had a great camaraderie with MS Dhoni during his coaching stint in the IPL with Chennai Super Kings and recently Rising Pune Supergiant. The former New Zealander has observed Dhoni from close quarters and has been a fan of his cricketing acumen. The two have shared a guru-shishya bond and have great respect for each other. After Gary Kirsten, Fleming is the only coach who has blended perfectly with Dhoni.

In a recent interview, the former Kiwi opened up about Dhoni’s prospects till the 2019 World Cup and his present form. He believes that Dhoni will lap up the competition it is facing from his successors like Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik and Wriddhiman Saha for the wicketkeeper’s post. And considering his age, Dhoni will still make significant contributions to the team.

Fleming is of the notion that the 35-year-old is well aware of his ability and how much he can contribute to the team. He takes his instincts seriously. If he feels he is not 100% fit, he will sit back and rest and then come back fresh. That’s the sign of a great player.

Dhoni knows himself well

“There are a lot of players who can do that, but there is only one MS Dhoni at the moment. I think his track record deserves the first crack at it. He has balance in his life now so he can get fit and come back fresh. I think he will do it. He is aware that he needs to keep performing and that’s when great players are at their best. If you get too comfortable, you are not at your best,” he said to ESPNcricinfo.

Stephen has known MS to be a disciplined human being. Dhoni, according to him, knows what challenges lie ahead of him. He is not bullish when he says that he will play till the 2019 World Cup.

“He is not arrogant enough to assume that he will make it through to the 2019 World Cup. He’s made it clear that he wants to play the 2019 World Cup but he knows he also do well to do that. He’s desperate to keep performing. If he feels he stops performing and starts to lag and becomes a hindrance, then he will give up the game,” Fleming said.

Speaking on his dip in form in the recent years, Fleming reasoned that every player goes through that period once he catches age. Great players have faced such problems in the last years of their cricketing tenure. The New Zealander said that players like Dhoni have to bear the brunt of high expectations as they have proved their abilities time and again in the past.

A player cannot perform well if he is too much burdened by the fact that he has to perform. This fear becomes his death knell. Dhoni will be at his best if he is not weighed by the shackles of fear.

“We have such high expectations of what he can do and that is often unfair. There is going to be some slippage, every player has slipped a bit as they have got older. The other thing is to play without fear. So what we’ve talked about is playing that fearless brand of cricket that he has become known for, and making sure that he doesn’t get too cautious and too worried about getting out and the consequences of that. He’s at his best when he has no fear,” the New Zealand legend quoted.

Wicket keeping skills still at his best

Stephen is a big fan of Dhoni’s wicket keeping skills. During his IPL tenure as coach, he hasn’t seen Mahi honing his wicket keeping skills. It comes naturally to him and is also different from any other wicketkeeper. With age, his keeping has become more agile and accurate. He was blown over by Dhoni’s stumpings in the IPL on a few occasions. And that’s a great sign for the Indian team.

“Infact during my time in IPL, I have not seen him any wicket keeping training, it’s all natural and it’s unorthodox but it’s fast and effective. Some of the dismissals and stumpings during the recent IPL were absolutely dynamite. If his keeping was deteriorating, that might be a sign but it is actually getting better, which is a real positive for India,” Fleming said.

Captaincy will still haunt Dhoni

Dhoni’s stepping down as a captain from both ODIs and T20Is will not free him from the responsibilities he had earlier as captain, Fleming thinks. MSD is so accustomed to field setting from behind the stumps and making necessary bowling changes at the crunch times, that it will take a while to rub that off from his mind. He wants to be in the groove of decision making and keep contributing till the end.

“Once you get away from decision making, people will say it’s very easy, you can focus on your game and do your own thing, but it is very hard to switch the other things off. You are so used to being the decision maker, moving players and being part of the tactics, it becomes a key part of how you play the game. It does take some adjustment,” Fleming concluded.