New Delhi: A decade can be a long time. In ten years, a boy can turn into a man and a man into a legend. MS Dhoni, now the ‘former Indian captain’ after his surprise announcement on Wednesday, was 25 – three years removed from his international debut – when he was asked to lead a young and more pragmatic Indian cricket team at the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa. It was a squad in which only Yuvraj Singh had played more international matches than Dhoni.
Dhoni was a young man entrusted with the responsibility of lifting the brand new 20-over World Cup, just four months since the catastrophe of the 50-over World Cup in the West Indies where India crashed out in the first round. But with this revamped, somewhat fresh-faced Indian team under Dhoni transforming from rank underdogs – remember, the BCCI had been very, very sceptical of the T20 format – into world champions, the nation had woken up to a new superstar. Overnight, a flamboyant batsman with long locks became India’s modern-day leader, springing surprises not just with his looks, but also his decision-making.
Here was a young man in the fast lane towards attaining legendary status.
When Dhoni took over the reins, issues lingered. Foremost, India were not yet world-beaters. They would usually be bullied abroad and not always found it easy against the tougher teams at home. The healthy practice of injecting young blood into the team, initiated by Sourav Ganguly during his tenure as captain, had receded. Dhoni, with no captaincy record to speak of, entered the fray as an outside punt by the selectors and took that transitional Indian team to unprecedented success – that of winning all three major ICC tournaments and No 1 in the Test Championship (and he remains India’s most successful Test captain, despite that damning string of overseas losses in the latter half of his tenure).
Because of his quiet demeanour, Dhoni instilled poise in the team. He was not one to get flustered or drop his shoulders when the world was seemingly against his team. The tremendous backing he would provide his bowlers was trend-setting. No captain backed his spinners as much as Dhoni did. He made them bowl inside Powerplays, often opening the bowling with them. Ravichandran Ashwin marvelled at that move and today stands as the game’s best spinner.
Before him, Harbhajan Singh would be given complete liberty to choose his field. Each time the scenario of India defending a target emerged, Dhoni operating his two spinners in tandem with one part-timer, made for magical viewing. Virender Sehwag and Suresh Raina contributed with match-winning performances with the ball too.
The kind of motivational speeches Dhoni delivered were unheard of. Check YouTube and you will understand why so many got hooked on to the game because of him; even those with limited knowledge and interest. And even if on the inside he was nerve-racked, Dhoni appeared calm on the outside. The idea of asking your team-mates to just go out there and enjoy themselves may have sounded an absurd ideology at first, but it was the same belief in his players that allowed them to revel under him. Amid the several anecdotes that one would associate with Dhoni, backing Joginder Sharma bowl the last over against Pakistan in the World T20 final of 2007 should remain his finest.
As Dhoni’s unorthodox tactics and bold moves contributed to his rise as captain, there were occasions where some of his calls didn’t go down well. After the Test series loss to Australia in 2007, Dhoni ensured the Indian ODI side had no place for Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid because they were considered slow in the shorter formats. Dhoni wanted a certain set of fielders and believed that faster legs would help him save runs and rotate strike better. Was it a popular call? No. Was it productive? Definitely. India won the CB series in Australia by beating Australia twice in the first two finals. Then came ODI series wins in New Zealand and Sri Lanka in early 2009.
The low of 0-4 Test defeats in England and Australia each saw Dhoni further run himself into uncharted territory during the disastrous tour of Australia in 2012, where the infamous ‘rotation policy’ saw one of Sehwag, Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir rested for games throughout the ODI series. It made Dhoni’s intentions clear: performance was the ground for all selections. Simultaneously, Dhoni gave plenty of chances to the younger lot. The decision to make Rohit Sharma open the innings along with Shikhar Dhawan gave India their most reliable opening pair in years.
Leave a Reply