5 cricketers who have attempted playing the Helicopter shot

Modern day cricket has seen batsmen come up with many innovative shots, the ‘Switch Hit’ and the ‘Dilscoop’ being just a couple. However, one of the first improvisations that most batsmen try to execute nowadays, especially at the end of an innings in limited-overs cricket, is the Helicopter shot.

Current Indian captain MS Dhoni was the first player to play the shot with a great amount of success in limited-overs cricket. He learned the shot while playing tennis ball cricket in his hometown from a friend, much to the agony of bowlers around the world.

While no one plays the stroke with the efficiency of Dhoni, there have been a few others, both in the past and recently, who have tried their hand at playing the shot.

Here are 5 cricketers who have attempted playing the stroke, albeit with mixed success: 

6 years before MS Dhoni played it for the first time, Abdul Razzaq, in a Test against England in 2000, tried the shot off the bowling of left-arm spinner Ashley Giles. The shot might not have got him six runs, but it certainly did fetch him a four. The attempt by Razzaq, however, was very close to Dhoni’s, with the whip of the bat after he met the ball bearing striking resemblance to the Indian captain’s follow-through when he plays the stroke.