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India's Legendary skipper MS Dhoni was known for his lightning-fast wicketkeeping skills in addition to his captaincy and finishing skills on the field. The wicketkeeper-batter was a live wire behind the stumps and kept the batters on their toes by whipping the bails off in a flash.
Dhoni finished his international career with 829 dismissals, including 195 stumpings — the third-most successful wicketkeeper across all formats, only behind Mark Boucher (998) and Adam Gilchrist (905). He does lead the list when it comes to the number of stumpings — 195.
Speaking at a Livfast event, Dhoni said that the freedom of his mentor Kiran More in the early stage of his international career really helped him become a better player. He said that a change in the conventional technique of wicketkeeper brought on by former India player Kiran More really helped him as a player
"I also started playing tennis ball cricket. When you keep wickets while playing with a tennis ball, it's important to have soft hands. When you have hard hands, the ball lips out. So we all started from there. As far as wicketkeeping with the leather ball is concerned, I got a lot of help. Initially, when Kiran More was a selector, he used to be around the team. He helped me a lot with my keeping, with my drills," Dhoni said.
"What I really liked was, he understood my wicketkeeping technique was unique and that I was not copybook style," he added.
Dhoni cut down on microseconds by going against convention. The wicketkeeper did not pull his hand back while collecting the ball but kept bringing his hand forward and snatched it. The unconventional but effective technique made him pull off some amazingly fast stumpings over the years.
Explaining the method to the madness, Dhoni said: "Over the last 50 years, keepers have been doing the same. It was basic learning for me. They say in cricket that you give, i.e. when the ball is coming at you, you are supposed to receive the ball. I said 'why do you need to receive the ball?'
"The gloves we have, it has rubber and inside the rubber, there is cotton. So it's already quite soft. So, I don't have to give (receive), I can actually snatch the ball, more often than not," he added.
