Ritesh Misra, Surat, 13 April 2024
Like all superstars, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, known popularly as MSD or Mahi or simply Dhoni, has a huge fandom of his own. Like all successful professionals, Dhoni has some detractors and critics as well and his ever-loyal fans combat questions raised about him with gusto, vigour, and their own peculiar loyalty and logic. They have been nicknamed the “Dhoni Sena”!
Let us look at certain aspects of his career such as, the stability and longevity he gave to the team as a player and how he got his breakthrough. Let us also look at key aspects of his captaincy in different formats of the game.
Stability and longevity
MSD brought stability to the Indian team as a wicket-keeper batsman ever since he made his ODI debut in 2004 and Test debut in 2005. Before that there was virtually a carousel and merry-go-round of wicketkeepers. MSK Prasad, Vijay Dahiya, Deep Dasgupta, Ajay Ratra, Sameer Dighe, Nayan Mongia, Saba Karim, Parthiv Patel, and Dinesh Karthick were various keepers tried for varying periods. Dhoni’s selection and subsequent performances sealed the spot. He made it his own.
The breakthrough
Hats off to Dada, our inspirational captain Sourav Ganguly, who is also an integral part of our Icons of India series. Dada’s chosen batting spot was Number 3, since India had destructive two openers in Sachin and Sehwag. MSD was playing just his 5th ODI and his highest score prior to this was only 12. In his previous match, Mahi had batted at number 7, and he had scored only 3 runs. Dada showed his instinctive genius as captain to send Dhoni at one drop, and Mahi responded by scoring a magnificent 148 that helped India amass a winning 346. India had found a new destructive batsman. Thank you, Dada for this priceless gift to Indian cricket!
T20 Captaincy
T20 was a new format. India’s stalwarts Sachin, Sourav and Dravid opted out of the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007. The selectors sprung a surprise by naming Dhoni as the captain. Former BCCI President Sharad Pawar later revealed that it was Sachin who had recommended the name of MSD for captaincy.
In his first match, there was a “bowl-out” situation against Pakistan when both teams were tied at the same score. Mahi took an innovative decision by choosing 3 slower bowlers – Sehwag, Harbhajan, and Uthappa – and all three struck timber all three times while Pakistani quicks led by Umar Gul failed to do so.
In the final of the T20 World Cup, his selection of Joginder Sharma over Harbhajan was praised as it clicked big time. However, there was a shrewd understanding of the game behind the “gamble”. While the experienced Bhajji had conceded 36 in his 3 overs, Joginder had conceded just 13 in his 3. So there was method in the “madness”.
Dhoni’s unorthodox thinking would continue to be a highlight of his captaincy throughout his career.
ODI Captaincy
After India’s disastrous 2007 World Cup campaign, Dhoni captained the ODI team after Dravid stepped down. The selectors clearly had a long-term plan in mind and Dhoni continued as ODI captain, which spectacularly paid off with India winning the ODI World Cup in 2011.
In 2015, India, a team in complete disarray, entered the semifinals against all odds but were outclassed against a thoroughly professional Australian side. An interesting aspect of how Dhoni operates as captain was seen when he took bowlers Ishant, Mohit, and BK to an adventure park for hiking and fishing to take their minds off cricket, make them relax and come back rejuvenated.
Dhoni has led India to 4 wins out of 6 multi-nation ODI tournament finals, which is a world record. In ODI’s he has another world record, which is maximum not outs. Dhoni has been not out 84 times in his career and next is Shaun Pollock with 72 not outs. He is the only captain to have a century, batting at number 7.
Test Captaincy
After Anil Kumble stepped down as Test captain, Dhoni became the Test captain as well, and during his tenure India topped the ICC Test rankings for the first time. Dhoni led the team to 27 Test wins including 6 wins abroad. However, there were as many as 15 losses abroad (out of 18 overall) for which his test captaincy was criticised. So was his decision to suddenly retire in the middle of a Test series.
As a test batsman, he had 6 centuries and his defining innings as a batsman was a counter attacking 224 versus Australia at Chennai, when his captaincy was on the line. The knock had an impact on how the series shaped out since at that point the two teams were equally placed and the Aussies never recovered thereafter, with the series ending in a 4-0 win for India.
The Finisher
Dhoni transformed himself from a hard hitting batsman to a finisher as per the demand of the hour and need of the team. He has the most unbeaten innings and the highest average in successful chases. In the number of unbeaten innings, he is followed by Jonty Rhodes, Inzamam-ul-Haq, and Ricky Ponting, while in the highest average in successful chases, he is ahead of Virat Kohli, Michael Bevan, ABD, and Joe Root. He has remained not out in losing causes while chasing only twice. Two were tied and as many as 47 out of the 51 resulted in wins!
Dhoni’s method as finisher is simple. He nudges around, runs hard, and takes singles and twos to take the score as near to the target as possible. He then relies on a few lusty blows to score the winning runs. The danger is that the asking rate may go out of bounds.
Let us look at three more world records which Mahi still has:
A) Maximum matches as Captain. Mahi has led India in 332 International matches, 200 ODIs, 60 Tests and 72 T20s. Out of these, India won in 178 matches – 41 Tests, 110 ODIs and 27 T20s. Next is Ricky Ponting with 324 matches while Virat was captain in 213 matches across formats before relinquishing captaincy to Rohit Sharma.
B) Maximum stumpings. Dhoni has 192 stumpings in his career in different formats and he is the only wicket-keeper with more than 100 dismissals in ODIs. He has 123 stumpings while Sangakkara has 99. In terms of overall dismissals, Boucher and Gilly are ahead of Mahi.
C) Highest scorer in ODIs for a wicket-keeper. Dhoni’s 183 still remains the highest score for any wicket-keeper in an ODI. This was versus Sri Lanka and India easily chased the target of 299. Dhoni scored 183 in just 145 balls and his terrific knock had 15 fours and 10 sixers.
Dhoni is also the only captain to win all the three ICC trophies. Under his captaincy, the Indian team won the T20 World Cup in 2007, the ICC ODI World Cup in 2011 and the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013. His place in history is assured as one of our top 5 captains of all times and one of our best cricketers ever.
Mahi bhai, you are an inspirational icon of India!