Legendary Indian captain MS Dhoni had arrived in the international cricket arena with a reputation of being a brutal striker of the ball. The stories were apparently not the ones made up for some reason, as he had once broken a couple of fingers of a fellow Indian all-rounder while batting.
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The reason for the same was a certain lusty blow from the meat portion of his bat. While the international bowlers would dread him over the years in the capacity of a hard-hitting batter, Dhoni and his fearless brand of cricket had already instilled a sense of fear in the Indian bowlers in domestic cricket.
The incident had happened during one of the practice sessions of an India A camp at the National Cricket Academy, Bengaluru. The one at the receiving end of his aggressive stroke play was not an opposition bowler, but the one from his own team, who would later make a comeback into international cricket on the day Dhoni made his debut for India.
MS Dhoni Had Broken 2 Fingers Of Sridharan Sriram
Sridharan Sriram, who had coincidentally played his last two matches for India on the days Dhoni played his first two, surely is one of the very few people who happens to share an unforgettable memory with the latter in the form of the aforementioned incident.
The same was revealed by former India batter Robin Uthappa during an interaction with Jio Cinema a year ago. It was the first-ever sight he had of Dhoni during an India A camp in 2003, and he was fortunate enough for having witnessed him hitting huge sixes right away at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
At one particular moment, he stepped down the track to left-arm spinner Sriram and hit the ball straight at him with all his strength. Sriram, in an impulsive reaction stretched out his hand to stop the ball, only to have a couple of his fingers broken.
“The first time I saw MS Dhoni was during an India A camp in 2003 at the NCA in Bengaluru. MS was batting in the middle of the Chinnaswamy Stadium against Munaf Patel, who at that point in time was quick with a slingy action. In fact, he actually injured Sridharan Sriram. He stepped out and smashed it straight to the bowler. Sriram stuck his hand out and it hit him. We thought he was running after the ball but he crossed the ball and kept running towards the dressing room. He immediately knew that he had broken his hand. I think he ended up with two broken fingers. We all got an idea of how hard MS hits the ball. Then I knew that he will play for India.”
A year later in December 2004, both Sriram and Dhoni batted in the middle-order in the first ODI against Bangladesh in Chattogram. The two played during the second ODI as well, but never had an opportunity to bat together. Also, despite Sriram bowling 19 overs across both the matches and scalping four wickets overall, Dhoni was not part of any of these dismissals to morally compensate for his broken fingers.
Dhoni And Sriram Had Batted Together For India A
They might not have batted together for India, but had done the same few months prior during the Kenya Triangular Tournament featuring India A, Pakistan A and Kenya A.
While they had batted together for a few minutes during India’s first match against Pakistan, they had stitched an unbeaten 59-run partnership for the third wicket while chasing during their third match against the arch-rivals. While Dhoni remained unbeaten on 119*, Sriram remained not out at the score of 21*, thereby guiding India to an 8-wicket victory.
The tour had turned out to be path-breaking one for Dhoni with respect to his career. He had emerged as the highest run-scorer in the series with 362 runs across six innings at an average of 72.40. India had went on to win the tri-series by defeating Pakistan again by 6 wickets in Nairobi.
