5 Indian coaches and their most famous proteges

#3 Greg Chappell and MS Dhoni (2005-2007)

MS Dhoni rose to limelight through his powerful mauling of the cricket ball during his early years

Although the former Australian captain had a short association with the Indian Cricket Team and also had rumours of his foul relationship with the then captain, Ganguly, floating around during his tenure, Greg Chappell would probably be remembered as the coach who inculcated the knack for experimentation into the Indian team. Whether it was sending Irfan Pathan to open the batting or asking Rahul Dravid to keep wickets, Chappell had his own way of leading the team forward. His record, however, was a mixed bag of victories and defeats and was let off by the BCCI after India’s ignominious exit from the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

Notwithstanding all of that, not everything was gloomy and out of the line in the Indian team under Chappell. The Australian’s tenure saw the rise of arguably the greatest ever limited-overs captain that India has ever seen, MS Dhoni. Between 2005 and 2007, Dhoni established himself as the go-to man in crisis situations and made a name for himself as the man who could change the face of the game through sheer power and muscle as opposed to touch, stroke-play, and finesse. The Jharkhand-born cricketer’s batting average never dropped below 40 between 2005 and 2007 – despite coming in to bat at No. 5, 6 or 7 – and the strike-rate consistently touched 90 runs per 100 balls.

Dhoni’s partnerships with Yuvraj Singh during the ODI series in Pakistan in 2006 – which India won 4-2 – saw tough run chases being reduced to cakewalks, and established the right-handed wicket-keeper batsman as one of the best finishers in international limited-overs cricket. The cricketer’s crowing achievement came just after Chappell’s contract had been terminated, when immediately after the 50-over World Cup in 2007, Dhoni led India to their maiden ICC World T20 title in South Africa.