Mahendra Singh Dhoni is arguably India’s best captain and one of the most influential players in Indian cricket history. For the record, no other captain in the world has won all three ICC Trophy i.e T20 World Cup, ODI World Cup, and Champions Trophy except MS Dhoni.
He has done many firsts for India as captain and we all have those records on tip of our tongues but what is the change that Dhoni brought in the Indian team that he captained for almost a decade? What is his legacy?
#1 Cultivating the winning habit in the shorter format of the game
Real change in the attitude of the Indian team started under Sourav Ganguly. He made the Indian team into a bunch of fighters. He taught India how to reach finals but sadly, on most of the occasions, India faltered on big stages and lost big finals.
Under Sourav Ganguly, India reached 14 ODI finals but could win only one final and three finals ended with no result. Under Dhoni, things changed drastically and India took a giant leap.
India learned how to win big finals and the winning habit was cultivated in players. Earlier, India started as underdogs in finals, under the Jharkhand cricketer, India became favourites in the finals and the rich haul of trophies under Dhoni is the testimony to the fact. Dhoni led India to 13 finals, winning 8 finals and losing just 5.
#2 Backing young players and leaving the core behind for the next captain
Dhoni’s first ODI trophy as captain came in Australia in the 2008 CB series. Dhoni's India beat Australia, a dominant team of the decade, in the first two of the three finals, Ricky Ponting had infamously claimed that they would finish off India in first two finals, one of the sweetest victories that India had.
But, the story before that series was not at all rosy. India dropped two big names – Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid from ODI squad, and Dhoni famously said that sometimes it is very important to send the message across. Since then he always backed youngsters with an eye on the future.
Sourav Ganguly is always for building team India by backing players like Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan etc but Dhoni is never given credit in this regard. Dhoni was also mocked for backing players like Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay, and Rohit Sharma, who have now become the core of Virat Kohli’s invincible test team.
Dhoni reaped the benefits of the team created by Sourav Ganguly. Similarly, before leaving he has built the core of the team to make India a champion team under Virat Kohli.
#3 Making fitness and fielding key criteria for team selection
While watching cricket in the late 90s and the early 2000s, Indian cricket fans always rued about the team’s fielding and fitness standards compared to the Aussies or Proteas. Dhoni’s appointment as captain changed Indian ground fielding and he also stressed on the importance of fitness.
He created a furore in the2012 Australian series when he categorically mentioned that only two out of Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwa, and Sachin Tendulkar could be included in playing XI because of their inconsistency in the fielding. The merit and demerits of that decision can be debated but that sent a clear message to players eyeing a place in the team: fitness and fielding are key criterias in team selection. Dhoni himself led by example.
He, all through his career, remained one of the fittest and fastest player on the pitch. The generation of players that came later were super fit and are among the best fielders in the world with the new in-charge Virat Kohli leading in both departments.
#4 Unhurried approach to the game and assuredness of champions
It is true to some extent that a captain is as good as his team but a captain certainly changes the way his team plays. Ricky Ponting and his team played firebrand cricket. Sourav Ganguly had aggression and that reflected in the attitude of his team. Anil Kumble had determination in his game and that reflected in his team. Who can forget that famous 2008 Perth Test.
In the era of the aggressive brand of cricket, Dhoni brought an unhurried approach to the game. Before Dhoni’s ascendency as captain, the Indian team were jittery in big chases and nervous on big occasions. There were many occasions when India collapsed after being in a good position. The panic button was pressed more often than needed. Dhoni removed that mental block and gave a loud call for calmness.
The situation gradually changed in years to come under his captaincy. From being bad chasers, India became chase masters. In last two years of his captaincy, it was down mainly to the genius of Virat Kohli but Dhoni is not far behind.
In his tenure as captain, in 43 innings while chasing, Dhoni scored 1558 runs, in winning causes, at a staggering average of 91.64. The attitude of Dhoni rubbed off on players as well and the Indian team under him possessed assuredness of Champions unlike the nervousness of underdogs earlier seen.
#5 Stomach to take big unconventional decision
The last over to Joginder Sharma in 2007 T20 World Cup final, promoting himself ahead of in-form Yuvraj Singh in 2011 World Cup final or giving the ball to the most expensive bowler, Ishant Sharma in the Champions trophy final, when England were cruising and needed only 28 runs in three overs – Dhoni has the knack of making decisions that proved to deliver positive results.
He took unconventional decisions, backed it, and most often ended on the right side of it, bringing many laurels to India. Call him lucky, call him “The great gambler” or call him a genius, one cannot deny that Dhoni had the stomach for taking big unconventional decisions when the stakes were high.
It is really the end of an era that gave many glorious days to the Indian cricket. When Dhoni was once asked question on managing old and young players. He answered, “From Kishore Kumar, we have gone to Sean Paul”.
It goes for the captaincy too, we are moving from an era of Kishore Kumar to Sean Paul.
Over to you Virat Kohli.
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