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Mahendra Singh Dhoni is one of the greatest cricketers in history and he has a big space in Indian cricket. MS Dhoni is the only Captain in the World who has won three different ICC trophies(2011 ODI World Cup, 2007 T20 World Cup, and 2013 Champions Trophy). MS Dhoni was one of the greatest captains in the white ball format. He was a bit doubtful in the red ball but in the initial stage of his captaincy career, he was good in almost every format.
He was appointed as the captain for the first time in 2007 when India was going to South Africa for the T20 World Cup and he led the Indian cricket team for almost a decade in the 2014 tour of Australia he left the test captaincy and handed over it to Virat Kohli. MS has represented India as captain in 60 tests 200 ODIs and 72 T20s where he won 27 tests 110 ODIs and 41 T20. With 332 international games, Dhoni has played the most games as captain. His winning percentage may not be that dominating but his records in ICC tournaments are nearly invincible. He has won three ICC trophies and one runner-up(2014 T20 World Cup) title out of 10 championships that he has participated in his captaincy career and it has been more than six years, two captains and seven ICC championships after he has left the captaincy in every format but India is still looking for an ICC trophy. Not even after him but before him it was only 1983 when India won a World Cup, so what was special about him was why he was able to win big tournaments like no one. In this article, we’ll see some important key factors in his captaincy that today’s captains should learn.
Results don’t matter to him
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Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the captain of Ideals. He used to do the way he used to think. He has told so many times in many interviews that whenever he was in the ground he didn’t think about the result and that was the reason he kept himself calm even in the winning condition. He doesn’t get much excited about winning and does not get much sad about losing, which allows him to use more of his mind in the game because he doesn’t use more of his heart in the game.
Whenever there was a situation when the team could either lose or win he never thought of what was going to happen after he won or lost he always tried to do what was the best thing to do at that moment. This was how the captain escaped from the emotions and did the right thing for his nation.
Believe in his teammates
MS has the ability to bring performance from any player present in his team he was not used to depending on specific players to perform. He knew that every player who was playing for his nation had the ability to perform as others could so he never replaced any player between the tournaments until and unless that specific teammate gave what MS wanted. He was a perfect leader in every way not only leading his team to win a tournament but also he used to lead his teammate as captain so that players could have that assurance that the captain was with them and wouldn’t get worried about dropping out or being criticized. Even in IPL, we’ve seen many times he has won the tournament without big names in his teams that only happens because he believes in his teammates and brings performances from them.
Best Cricketing mind
MS was considered one of the best minds ever and that was because of his calmness. His wicketkeeping skills also helped him to understand the wicket more than any player but rather than wicketkeeping when he used to be on the crease and understand the pressure so always did calculations so that he could manage the pressure and that’s why he was also considered as one of the best finishers of all time. He used to organize his plans in mind and then implement them on the field so that he could come across every possible result that his plan could give himself. For example, in 2007 he had only two options for the last over in the final which was Harbhajan Singh. Harbhajan said to him that he wasn’t very sure about his deliveries and Jogindger was confident, so he decided to give Jogi the last over because he thought that if we lost with Bhajji’s over it will be going to be a mistake because even after knowing that he’s not confident he gave the ball but if we lost with Jogi’s over that’s bearable because Jogi wasn’t that experienced and Dhoni also though that he should be giving an over to a bowler who is much confident. There are many more examples of his sharpness such as in 2011 he came to bat before Yuvraaj who was in excellent form in that World Cup due to the Muralitharan factor and in the 2013 ICC Champions trophy when the game was about to slip from the hands he asked Ishant to come from round the wicket and bowl wide yorker after that he turned the table.
Conclusion
MS Dhoni has won three cups with three different teams and most of the players who’ve become big stars were being raised by him. He was able to win three ICC tournaments because he believed in his teammates and his teammates believed his plans. No doubt every captain has a different style of leading the team and a different strategy of fighting but without teamwork, you can’t beat Australia.
