Watch: The helicopter shot gained widespread attention when MS Dhoni made it his trademark, but Sachin Tendulkar unleashed the same shot two years before Dhoni entered the international stage.
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A young Dhoni gained limelight in the mid-2000s with his blistering batting style, regularly producing unorthodox strokes to telling effect. Among his array of strokes was the helicopter shot, a bludgeoning strike that Dhoni is widely regarded to have introduced to the world, using his bottom hand to connect with a full ball with considerable force, often resulting in a six over the leg-side.
Two years before MS Dhoni’s international debut in 2004, it was Sachin Tendulkar who pulled off his own rendition of the stroke, using it to target the leg-side during the 2002 Natwest Series in England. While Tendulkar became a compact run-maker in his late thirties, the first half of his career saw him dish out innovative strokes too, with the ‘helicopter’ surfacing during India’s 2002 tour to England.
During an ODI against England at Chester-Le-Street, which was eventually curtailed by rain, Tendulkar pulled off the stroke towards the end of an unbeaten century. In the 49th over, James Kirtley sent down a full delivery on the off side, and Tendulkar used his wrists to flick the ball over the on-side after moving a couple of steps, sending the ball away to the mid-wicket fence, similar to what Dhoni produced a few years later. He repeated the stroke again in the last over against Darren Gough to prove it wasn’t just a one-off.
In fact, there were other versions of the stroke even before Tendulkar – in 1996, Mohammad Azharuddin also pulled off the shot from outside off-stump against South Africa.
Watch Tendulkar’s shot here:
