MS Dhoni: Learnt to read the game from Sachin Tendulkar

As the Little Master prepares to bid adieu to cricket, emotions will be running high until after he has walked back to the dressing room one last time. Along the course of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar’s long and illustrious career he has mentored and inspired many a young and aspiring cricketer. (Also Read: Tributes pour in for Tendulkar on Twitter)

India captain, MS Dhoni, who came into the side when Tendulkar was already an experienced campaigner and his presence instilled fear in the minds of opposition bowlers, said, “In whatever opportunity I got to bat with him, I learnt how to read the game from him, especially in the ODIs. The time spent to target a bowler and gauging what was needed to be done at that point of time. – all those conversations really helped me. (Also Read: Sachin Tendulkar's milestones over the Years)

Speaking about the batting legend’s impending departure, Dhoni said, “I knew it was coming but I am quite happy for him.” (Also Read: Sachin Tendulkar Records in Numbers)

Dhoni spoke with appreciation of Tendulkar’s ability to carry the expectations of a country and his fans and yet perform at the highest level consistently. “The kind of illustrious career that he had, the time he was at the top, throughout his career for 24 years he played, he had to carry the expectations of so many Indians. And at times Indian fans set a very high level of expectations. So to bear all of that and at the same time to come up with the performances that he came up with is fantastic.

“When you are a leading batsman for your international team, for your country, for a considerable period of time where everybody scrutinizes each and everything, when you score runs, when you don’t score runs, I think there was plenty that he had to deal with apart from cricket. Cricket, of course, was his passion, but he had to deal with other things that go around in Indian cricket. So if you see all of that, he had a fantastic career.

“Not to forget that he had a few injuries during the course of time and from whatever interaction I had with him, at times I felt that the rehabilitation was more painful than the injury. Overall I am very happy that he had such a fantastic career and also that he retired on his own terms,” Dhoni said.

Mixed emotions are something that teammates, fans, spectators and experts will be feeling as the countdown to Tendulkar’s 200^th and final Test begins. While trying to put those emotions into words, Dhoni said, “As I said, I am happy but at some corner of the heart the selfish man says, ‘Okay, from now on you won’t be seeing him play cricket’. That’s the only thing that I am a bit disappointed about. But I would rather enjoy watching him for two more Test matches. It will give me an opportunity to see a house-full Test match in India, hopefully at both the venues. If that doesn’t happen this time, I don’t think it will happen in the next 25-30 years.”

Asked if he will be taking a few moments ahead of the Tests to talk to his boys about the overwhelming emotion surrounding Tendulkar’s retirement, Dhoni said, “We will care about it later. We have seven ODIs as of now. At that time the squad will look slightly different, so it is very important that we be in the present. That’s how we will take it because we have close to a month’s time before we play those games. It may be a situation where players may understand they have got enough time to figure out and believe that it will be the last two Test matches that Sachin Tendulkar would be playing.

source: bcci.tv