MS Dhoni’s wicketkeeping is the best he has ever seen, according to Ravichandran Ashwin, who claims he has never seen “anyone else” perform as well behind the stumps to spinners as the former India captain.
Ashwin noted how, in addition to his renowned leadership, Dhoni’s glovework and clarity of thought shone out during their lengthy association with the Indian team and the Chennai Super Kings.
“His glovework has always amazed me. People talk a lot about his captaincy, and rightly so, the titles speak for themselves. But for me, two things stand out — one, how good a middle-order batter he was, someone who could take the game deep and finish it. And the second is his keeping against spinners. I haven’t seen anyone else like him,” PTI quoted Ashwin as saying on JioStar’s ‘The Ravichandran Ashwin Experience’.
Ashwin also emphasized how bowlers were empowered by Dhoni’s detached style.
“He never set the field for me. I would set my own field, and he would just say, ‘Don’t double-guess. Don’t pre-empt. If you get hit, it’s fine. If someone takes a risk, let it be. Just bowl to your field.’ He trusted that.”
In the 2011 IPL final, the seasoned off-spinner reminisced about removing Chris Gayle for a three-ball duck, giving credit to Dhoni for a brilliant take behind the stumps.
“You can talk about the set-up and the dismissal, but how well MS took that catch. It wasn’t easy.”
Despite heading Punjab Kings in 2018–19, Ashwin said he couldn’t fully make them his own. Having taken 187 wickets in 221 games throughout a lengthy IPL career (2009–25) covering five franchises, he said his stint at Rajasthan Royals was the most rewarding.
“When Punjab picked me in 2018, I knew I was moving on; I spent two years there and honestly gave it everything. But I have a slight feeling that I couldn’t make that team my own. At an auction, you get the chance to build your team; the team couldn’t quite be built around me. I may not have achieved much as a Captain, but the learnings were immense.”
On his Rajasthan stint, he added: “I spent three years there, and that stint helped me make a comeback to the Indian team. The way RR utilised me was first-class, and I enjoyed my cricket there like nowhere else. My only small regret is that I couldn’t win a title with RR! That was one small regret.”
Ashwin also brought up Jos Buttler’s controversial non-striker run-out from his Punjab captaincy, insisting he did nothing wrong.
“If the ICC felt this was an honesty problem, they wouldn’t keep it in the rules. If you need two runs off one ball and you start running early, whose fault is it? People say I did it to win. Of course, I did it to win. What is there to be ashamed of? After I ran him out, I told the team… ‘don’t worry about the reaction, I will handle the media, we just have to win.’ And we won. So, there is no issue of character in this.”
