Learnt how to bat calmly under pressure from MS Dhoni, hoping to impress selectors in IPL 2022, says Rahul Tripathi

Tripathi hasn't made his international debut yet, but he is one of the more talented batsmen around, who the selectors might be keeping an eye on for a potential T20I call-up in the future, like his state-mate from Maharashtra, Ruturaj Gaikwad, who made his T20I debut last year after good performances at the domestic and IPL levels. Like most Indian cricketers of this generation, Tripathi too is a big MS Dhoni fan. He shared the dressing room with Dhoni in his maiden IPL season with the Rising Pune Supergiant team (now defunct) in 2017. After RPS, the 31-year-old went on to play for the Rajasthan Royals (2018 and 2019) and then the Kolkata Knight Riders (2020 and 2021). Tripathi will now be plying his trade for the Sunrisers Hyderabad who bought the attacking batsman for a whopping Rs 8.50 crore in the last IPL player auction. Last year (in 2021), Tripathi, while playing for KKR, found himself in a pressure-cooker situation and the Maharashtra cricketer held his nerve to seal the deal for his team. In Qualifier 2, in Sharjah, Kolkata Knight Riders were 123/2 in 16 overs, chasing Delhi Capitals 135/5.

Pic credit: KKR TwitterKKR looked well on course for a comfortable win, but a flurry of wickets put KKR on the verge of losing the crucial game. With 10 required off 13 balls, KKR lost the wickets of Dinesh Karthik, Eoin Morgan, Shakib Al Hasan and Sunil Narine in quick succession. The equation came down to 6 needed off just 2 balls. Tripathi didn't waste much time and pumped a huge six off R Ashwin (who was on a hat-trick), to help KKR enter the final. It was a cool, calm and collected hit from Tripathi under pressure and came in for heavy praise. "Hitting the six in that situation was something special for me. I didn't