Kolkata: The Vijay Hazare Trophy this year has been in the news since the name of Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been associated with it. The former Indian skipper has efficiently led his Jharkhand team to the semi-finals, where they face a ‘young’ Bengal side in Delhi tomorrow. Now, to tackle captain cool (Dhoni), captain aggressive (Sourav Ganguly) has stepped in to guide Bengal.
The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president has once again put on the mentor’s hat to help the Bengal team after a commendable victory in a high scoring match against Maharashtra. Barring a few names like skipper Manoj Tiwary, Ashok Dinda and Pragyan Ojha, the Bengal team consists of players like Kanishk Seth, Sayan Ghosh and Amir Gani who have never played with or against Dhoni.
This is where the role of Ganguly is important. Ganguly has already discussed a few plans to tackle the Dhoni factor, a source in CAB clarified. “Sourav has already discussed a few plans on how to tackle the Dhoni threat with Manoj and coach, Sairaj (Bahatule). No doubt Dhoni is a formidable player but it’s not impossible to get him out,” quoted the source. “Dada will be present in the stadium tomorrow,” added the source.
Bengal skipper Tiwary too had his say on the Dhoni threat factor, “This is a young Bengal team and they have learnt how to play according to the situation. MS Dhoni is a legend but, on the field, one can’t get intimidated by names.” He also rightly added that it would be wrong for Bengal to concentrate only on Dhoni while ignoring names like Saurabh Tiwary, Ishan Kishan and Virat Singh.
Dhoni who debuted for India under Ganguly has had an inconsistent equation with the latter. In recent times, Dhoni and Ganguly were involved in a war of words when Ganguly wondered whether Dhoni would last till the 2019 World Cup. Dhoni in reply to Ganguly tweeted, “Does he have a son or brother who can play for India?” This however didn’t go down well with Ganguly, who reportedly called Dhoni and had a heated conversation with him.
It will be unique to see what the most successful Indian skipper on international soil (Ganguly) plans against the best Indian skipper on home soil (Dhoni). This high voltage match will grab eyeballs. Game on!
(With inputs from PTI)