Syed Kirmani reveals thrilling inside story behind MS Dhoni's seminal East Zone selection

Syed Kirmani has revealed how Mahendra Singh Dhoni was picked for the East Zone when he was still an emerging cricketer, on his road to becoming hailed as arguably India's most successful ever Cricket captain, on account of having won all the major ICC titles, as well as his exploits for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL.

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'I have never disclosed this before': Syed Kirmani

During an interview with a daily publication, Kirmani went on to say that he has never disclosed how Dhoni was picked for East Zone but recalling that particular day, he said that he and his co-selector from East Zone named Pranab Roy were watching a Ranji Trophy match and that is when Roy had told him there is a wicket-keeper batsman from Jharkhand who is a very promising youngster and deserves selection. The former stumper then asked him whether he was keeping wickets in that particular match to which Roy replied by saying that he was fielding at fine leg.

The 1983 World Cup winner then mentioned that he was really impressed when he got a chance to go through Dhoni's stats from the last two years due to his terrific consistency in his batting ability and it was because of that reason that that the 70-year-old suggested that Dhoni be selected for East Zone straightaway without even watching him keep wickets.

The 2011 World Cup-winning skipper has been on a sabbatical from the game ever since Team India's heartbreaking World Cup 2019 semi-final loss at the hands of New Zealand last year. He was all set to lead the three-time winners Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2020 that was originally scheduled to get underway on March 29 but has now been suspended indefinitely due to the global pandemic.

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