Australia all-rounder Marcus Stoinis has opened up about his "honest" conversation with MS Dhoni during the recent edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), saying that the ex-India skipper understood him "very well". A chat with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) talisman made Stoinis feel delighted and insulted at the same time.
Stoinis, currently a part of the Australia squad in the World T20, had missed a major chunk of Delhi Capitals' IPL campaign in the UAE owing to an injury. He ended his lacklustre IPL season with 89 runs and two wickets in 10 matches.
"He was actually very honest with me. He understood me very well and he sort of said how they (CSK) would try to bowl to me and how he tried to set the fields for me. [It] was both a compliment but also a little dig where I have to figure out which way to take it and I’m taking it as a compliment (laughs),” Stoinis said in a conversation with The Grade Cricketer’s YouTube channel.
The 32-year-old Aussie was also advised to work on his “weakness” aspect by Dhoni, who is currently serving as the mentor of the Virat Kohli-led Indian contingent.
Dhoni has been a rock-solid pillar for the Chennai outfit since the inception of the IPL, having led them to four titles including the recent triumph in the UAE. Stoinis, on the other hand, is yet to lay his hands on the IPL trophy. He has been a part of Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) and Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) so far in the league.
“It was very interesting he did say that it’s very obvious how some people want to take some responsibility and stay until the end, whereas some people are willing to take the risk early to, sort of, either try and get ahead of the game or walk off and he identifies
that within the team,” Stoinis further said.
“We spoke about training, we spoke about his belief on ‘Work on your weakness as long as it’s not taking anything away from your strength’. So he spoke about how a lot of coaches will ask you to work on things and you might work on the short ball and then you
start missing the full ball… which was a really, really nice filter for me for training,” the all-rounder added.
