Former India spinner Pragyan Ojha, who recently drew curtains on his international career, termed the former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni as ‘bowler’s captain’. Ojha had played most of his cricket under the captaincy of Dhoni. He lauded Dhoni’s flexibility as captain and clear approach which helped every bowler to achieve their best at the big stage.

“He (Dhoni) was bowler’s captain. I strongly believe that a bowler should have a captain who understands him. A lot of bowlers praise Dhoni because of the dimensions he gives you, things that he helps you with like placing the field, keeping your mind clear and those are important when you play high-intensity games,” Ojha told reporters on sidelines of the DY Patil T20 Cup.

The 33-year-old also hailed his Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma. After calling it quits from international and first-class cricket, Ojha is now keen to compete in the T20 Leagues abroad and will seek BCCI permission for exploring the options.

“There are few things in my mind. I have been doing commentary and I am with the BCCI. I will take advice from the BCCI whether I can go and play in some leagues outside India but (only) if I get permission. I need to talk to BCCI and let’s see what happens,”

In the early stages of his career, Ojha had a successful spin partnership with R Ashwin in Tests, taking 20 wickets in the 2011 home games against West Indies and 13 the following year against New Zealand.

Asked whether he had any regrets in his career, Ojha, who had 113 Test wickets, quipped, “Maybe (would have played) more cricket for India”.

Giving an example of Shahbaz Nadeem, Ojha said there were many opportunities for left-arm spinners and eventually performance at the domestic level would help them. “How many (left-arm) spinners are there in our country who are ready to go and play. A maximum of four or five, so there is lot of gap.

“If you work hard and consistently perform in domestic cricket, you will be rewarded. Look at Nadeem, he has played well and end of the day he got a chance, he is now a Test cricketer,” he said.

Ojha in his career was banned for a brief period after his action was found to be illegal.

Asked whether the clampdown on chucking affected his career, he said, “I will tell very clearly, what happened when I started playing, I developed few things which were not good for my career.”

“Chucking is something which should be treated as an injury not like an insult because when I heard about it, I was shaken. Imagine a 15-16-year-old guy, so it (chucking) should be taken very carefully and they (the authorities) should be very sensitive in the way they are dealing with those boys,” he noted.

“I was back in just 22 days and began playing for Hyderabad again. I played for India ‘A’ as well. So that’s how it went,” Ojha said.