Decoding MS Dhoni's art of wicketkeeping

Speaking to the Indian Express' Bharat Sundaresan, India's fielding coach R Sridhar talks about how MS Dhoni's swift run-outs and stumpings have not only stunned the opposition batsmen but also the team's staff. Dinesh Karthik, another India wicketkeeper, talks about how Dhoni sets the standard of wicketkeeping today, and how everyone is trying to get to where he is.

"You need to produce 'give' so that you can make your hands soft. But he's able to create that softness even while his hands are going towards the ball, which is amazing. I've tried it. It is very hard. I have not been able to get close to that," says [Dinesh Karthik,] the seasoned Tamil Nadu gloveman.

To understand the 'give' or the softening effect that Karthik talks about and how that distinguishes Dhoni as being one of a kind, think about catching any hard object thrown towards you with your hands. Be it for a normal person or a professional sportsman who's not Dhoni, the natural tendency is to push your hands back upon catching it so as to cushion the blow and absorb the force while ensuring that the object doesn't pop out. It's physics 101.

Where Dhoni is extremely different is his ability to, as Sridhar puts it, 'use force to absorb force', by pushing his hands towards the ball even if it might seem like the most unnatural or counter-intuitive motion for any other wicket-keeper. "While others use their hands to produce that give, he uses his wrists. While his hands are going towards the stumps, there's a slight flick of the wrists in the backward direction. In my opinion, it's not safe hands but strong hands that allow him to do that. That's also the reason you will rarely see him collecting the ball to his side like other keepers," explains Sridhar.