Leading from the front, Mahendra Singh Dhoni inculcated the concept of self-belief and made winning a habit for the Indian cricket team
Photo Credits: LEAD
Circa 2007. The Indian cricket team is shunted out of the World Cup despite the presence of Tendulkar, Sehwag, Dravid et al. The team morale is at an all-time low and the country’s cricket denizens have gone into collective shock.
Around this time, the first T20 World Cup is announced and the swashbuckling Indian wicketkeeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni or MSD is entrusted with the task of resurrecting the Indian limited overs side sans the stars.
MSD takes charge and infuses the one key ingredient which seems to be missing in the team -- self-belief. He tells his young troops that they can beat any team in the world, in a format in which India is just taking baby steps at that time.
MSD leads from the front. Making runs, taking unconventional decisions and keeping his cool. And lo and behold, India become the first World T20 champions. From that fateful evening at the picturesque Wanderers ground in South Africa to January 4 this year, when he resigns as captain of the Indian ODI and T20 sides, there has never been a dull moment for Indian cricket.
But the MSD saga began in 2005. In just his fifth ODI match, he hit the hapless Pakistani bowlers for a quick-fire 148 in 123 balls and the man from Ranchi with the broad shoulders and the long mane instantly caught the fancy of the Indian cricket fan. MSD’s entry into Indian cricket also heralded the start of the era of the small town Indian cricketer.
In one single stroke, MSD had demolished the myth that an aspiring Indian cricketer had to hail from one of the large urban Indian cities. MSD’s example was quickly emulated by the likes of Suresh Raina from Rajnagar, Praveen Kumar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar from Meerut, Ravindra Jadeja from Jamnagar and Hardik Pandya from Surat among others.
MSD has been a perfect role model for aspiring cricketers from small town India, a fact which was vividly portrayed in the biopic—‘MS Dhoni—the untold story’. His journey from a hardworking railway ticket collector to becoming India’s most successful cricket captain has almost been fairytale like.
MSD has always been an antithesis to convention. He is everything but copybook. He does not have a classical defensive stroke, but when he hits the ball, it stays hit. He has invented the helicopter shot, which few can emulate. His running between wickets is so quick, that it would make a 100 metre sprinter very proud.
More than anything else, MSD is confidence personified. His body language permeates a deep sense of confidence, especially when the going gets tough. His monk like demeanour does not give much away, least of all his sharp, ticking mind.
MSD introduced one more feature into Indian cricket. Out-of-box thinking. In the 2007 T20 Cup finals, with Pakistan needing 13 runs off the last over, he gave the ball to rookie pacer, Joginder Sharma. Sharma bowled a wide ball, allowed Misbah to hit him for a six and promptly got him caught in the outfield off the next ball. Similarly, he has baffled the opposition often by opening the bowling with Ashwin, the off spinner. And while chasing runs against Lanka in the 2011 World Cup finals in Mumbai, he promoted himself before the in-form Yuvraj and heaved a six to win the match for India.
Without doubt, one of MSD’s greatest strengths has been his ice-cool demeanour. Never flustered even when the opponents get the upper hand. A quick grimace, a slight twitching of the face is all that he allows himself as he bends down for the next delivery behind the stumps. It is this coolness that has rubbed off on his teammates in crunch situations.
It was common to see MSD run up to a distraught bowler and give him a pep talk or shout his customary, ‘Shabhaash, Shabhaash!’ from behind the stumps when his spinners were getting purchase from the wicket.
Not surprisingly, Dhoni’s achievements read like an academic topper’s report card. All A grades. MSD holds the record for being the most successful Indian cricket captain across all formats of the game. He has 110 ODI wins, 41 T20 wins and 27 Test match victories to his credit.
Under his leadership, the Indian cricket team has won all three ICC limited-overs trophies, the World Cup, the Champions Trophy and the World Twenty20. In 2009, Dhoni led the Indian team to number one position for the first time in the ICC Test rankings and in 2013, India became the first team in more than 40 years to whitewash Australia in a Test series.
The transition from the MSD era to the Kohli era promises to be smooth, largely because both men respect each other. The best news is that they will still be playing together as one unit. Cricket teams around the world are not going to like that very much!
