Before Rahul Dravid was the head coach of the Indian team, legendary all-rounder and now commentator, Ravi Shastri held the position from 2017 to 2021. He coached a number of high-profile players, including the great MS Dhoni in the final phase of his international career. However, few people know that Shastri once had some pretty harsh words to say to the former Indian captain, that too just after he had crossed the milestone of 10,000 runs in ODI cricket.
In a 2018 tour to England, India had won the T20I series 2-1, and ad won the first game of the three-match ODI series as well. In the second game of the series, England had scored 322 runs, and gave India quite a steep run chase. They were in the hunt when Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina were batting, but they lost a flurry of wickets, with MS Dhoni the only recognized batter remaining as he was batting with the tailenders. MS Dhoni then was unusually slow in his innings as he scored 36 from 59 and did not even attempt to go big and get close to the score. This was the match that MS Dhoni completed 10,000 ODI runs
According to former fielding coach R Sridhar's book, "Coaching Beyond: My Days with the Indian Cricket Team", the whole team was pretty surprised at MS Dhoni's approach, even though they were delighted with the fact that he had reached the milestone. He also mentioned that Ravi Shastri was seething at Dhoni's timid approach.
“Ravi, meanwhile, was seething. He was furious not because we lost by 86 runs, but how we lost the game, how we went down without putting up a fight. We didn’t go for the target, we didn’t go down throwing a punch, we just went down tamely. The head coach wasn’t going to let that one sail harmlessly by," Sridhar wrote.
Sridhar then revealed that Ravi Shstri gave an angry speech ahead of the series decider at Headingley, and even though he did not look at MS Dhoni directly, he addressed the timid loss and said that any player who played like that without trying to win would be playing their last cricket game under him.
"The decider was in Headingley, and we had a team meeting the previous day. The entire squad was in attendance, including all members of the support staff, and I knew Ravi was going to make a strong point. He was at his loudest and fiercest as he said, ‘No matter who you may be, there should not be another occasion when we lose a match not trying to win it. It will not happen under my watch. And if anyone does it, that will be the last bloody game of cricket they will play under my watch. You can lose a cricket game, no shame in that, but you will not lose like this," Sridhar wrote.