Dhoni is more assertive: Sunil Gavaskar

Former skipper Sunil Gavaskar today said captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has become more assertive and added that the faith shown on him by the Board and the selectors will spur him to do better.

“If the captain has the confidence of the board and the selectors, it gives him confidence to employ tactics on the field. It’s a huge plus. Now that he is doing so well, it will give him even more confidence,” Gavaskar said.

Dhoni stroked a maiden counter-attacking double hundred to lead India to a comfortable eight wicket victory over Australia in the first cricket Test here.

“He has changed a bit from the England series. He is more assertive. Towards the end of England series in Nagpur, he was trying to be more assertive, showing displeasure at the lack of efforts by the players and we have seen that in Chennai as well,” Gavaskar told ‘NDTV’.

The legendary opener also tried to reason what Dhoni meant when he said that he never dreamt about representing India.

“He (Dhoni) came from a place where cricket was not the number one sport. That might have given him a thought that he would not play for India,” Gavaskar reasoned.

Gavaskar felt that being a bit detached from the game has also helped him remain a “secure person”.

“He is a very secure person within himself. He is a very confident man. If tomorrow, he wasn’t playing cricket, I dont think he would be regretting anything. He would say I had my time and I enjoyed it. If you have such kind of an attitude, you tend to put on less pressure,” he said.