Legendary India captain MS Dhoni made some bold calls with respect to the team selection in both international cricket and the Indian Premier League. A decision to pick former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis over former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum in IPL 2018 auction was criticized initially. However, it turned out to be an excellent one eventually.
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After serving a two-year ban between 2016-2017, Chennai Super Kings were back for the 11th season of the IPL. An opportunity to retain three players from their 2015 roster was followed by them picking the likes of Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja. Apart from that, they had a chance to use two Right to Match (RTM) cards as well.
MS Dhoni Convinced CSK To Use RTM Card For Faf du Plessis And Not Brendon McCullum
In the Disney+Hotstar documentary ‘Roar of the Lion’ (2019), there’s a scene where Dhoni advises the management to go after du Plessis. Dhoni, who usually plays a gargantuan role in such strategic decision at Super Kings, believed that du Plessis would be a better option than McCullum. With CSK slated to play their home matches in Chennai, Dhoni made the choice realizing du Plessis to be a better player of spin.
“On slower wickets, Faf [du Plessis] is better because he can give us more as compared to Brendon [McCullum].”
du Plessis’ base price was INR 1.5 crore and Chennai started the bidding process. Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) sealed his services for just INR 1.6 crore only to lose the player to Super Kings as they exercised their RTM card to buy a someone who had already represented them for three seasons between 2012-2015.
Readers must note that du Plessis played just six IPL 2018 matches scoring 162 runs with the help of a half-century. However, as the years passed, he became one of their best-ever players. du Plessis, who used to play in the middle-order for Chennai in the earlier years, successfully transformed into a prolific opener.
When CSK won IPL 2021, the right-handed batter was the second-highest run-scorer of the tournament. In all the years of opening the batting for the franchise, du Plessis had scored 2,721 runs at an average and strike rate of 35.34 and 131.45 respectively including 20 half-centuries.
What Happened To Brendon McCullum In IPL 2018?
With Chennai not even bidding for him during IPL 2018 auction, McCullum was sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 3.60 crore. Having registered himself with a base price of INR 2 crore, the Kiwi player had also allured bids from Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals).
McCullum, however, underwent a disastrous season scoring only 127 runs across six innings. Hence, it proved to be the last of a decorated 11-season career for him in the biggest T20 league across the globe. In the hindsight, it would be absolutely correct to conclude that MS Dhoni knew what he was doing by not picking McCullum for a second stint at CSK.
