“Arre sahab, ee MS Dhoni gajab aadmi hai, eeka sab dikhayi deta hai (Sir, this MS Dhoni is an amazing guy, he can see everything).” These were words uttered to me by a street hawker from Bihar, selling condiments in New Delhi, after India’s win over Sri Lanka in the final of the 2011 World Cup. No one, in my opinion, with all their cricketing knowledge and acumen, could possibly describe MS Dhoni better.
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Mahendra Singh Dhoni stepped down as captain of the limited-overs Indian team on January 4th, bringing curtains over a glorious tenure, which saw him becoming one of the greatest skippers the world has ever seen. While we will be seeing Dhoni in action as a player, his absence as a leader is going to be absurd, for quite some time at least.
From a cricketing perspective, there could not be a more opportune time to make Virat Kohli the captain of the limited-overs side, keeping the 2017 Champions Trophy and 2019 World Cup in mind. However, the departure of Dhoni from the toughest job in Indian sports is going to be a huge loss for fans, cricket aficionados and experts.
Why? Dhoni, as the captain, was much more than a leader and your regular cricket skipper, who went for tosses, set the fielding or made bowling changes. Dhoni was an experience in himself, a microcosm of fearless but pragmatic cricket played by India from 2007 to 2011.
Right from his mannerisms to decision making and post-match comments to subdued celebrations, Dhoni was the modern-day uber cool captain that India needed to scale cricketing zeniths.
Surgeon, gambler and tightrope walker
To understand Mahendra Singh Dhoni is to observe him and listen to him, both on and off the field. Dhoni, the captain, was a rare combination of a surgeon, gambler and a tightrope walker. Clinical in his head, like a surgeon, Dhoni always knew his player-combination and often emphasised on the need to play the “right XI” rather than “best XI.” Even if his combination meant promoting Virat Kohli at number three or four at his own expense or bowling Ravichandran Ashwin inside the first 15 overs to stem the flow of runs, Dhoni did it.
The gambling traits in Dhoni were visible during many crunch moments, most of which led India to wins in big tournaments. No captain would have given a mediocre bowler like Joginder Sharma the final over of a T20 World Cup final but Dhoni did and it worked.
Almost a decade later, he did the same thing with Hardik Pandya against Bangladesh in the 2016 T20 World Cup and ended up winning. Like a seasoned Texas Hold’em Poker player, Dhoni played with mediocre cards (7 & 8) on several big occasions and forced opponents with Aces and Kings to fold. He lost sometimes and quite understandably so – the man was not Midas.
As far as the tightrope walking is concerned, Dhoni risked his reputation on more than one occasion during his captaincy stint, inviting grave criticism from former players, colleagues, media and “experts.” Dhoni, quite famously, took the big decision of dropping “senior players” from the team, citing “poor fielding” as a reason. Criticism might have come Dhoni’s way then but the current limited overs team is one of the best fielding sides in the world.
He has also been criticised for supporting the likes of Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja among others during their lean patches but the results are there for everyone to see.
Diplomacy with a strong touch of candour and wit was Dhoni’s style off the field. You would see him joking with teammates, pulling their leg and attending selected social gatherings but never has anyone seen Dhoni pass a controversial statement or be involved in any sort of misconduct in his personal life.
Selflessness personified
Dhoni is the best case study on professional selflessness you can ever find in the history of Indian cricket. Laden with moments of selflessness is his captaincy career, during which he put his team ahead of everything and everyone else. One such incident that comes to mind is the 2011 Cricket World Cup final, which, I believe, has its roots in the 2007 World Cup contest between India and Sri Lanka.
India were reeling at 122/5 in their final group game of the tournament and needed 143 runs from 22 overs with Rahul Dravid and MS Dhoni at the crease. A delivery from Muralitharan pitched around middle stump and straightened, leaving Dhoni absolutely clueless. He did not even look at the umpire and walked back, dejected and disconsolate. What followed after India’s loss and consequential exit was a barrage of abuses, effigy burning and many other such acts of hyperbole, calling for the heads of these players.
Also read: An open letter to MS Dhoni after stepping down as ODI and T20I captain
Cut to the 2011 World Cup final and Virat Kohli hands a simple catch to Tillakaratne Dilshan and India lose their third wicket for 114 while chasing 275 for victory. Bowling in the middle was an ageing Muttiah Muralitharan, looking for a glorious swansong, and a potent Suraj Randiv.
Dhoni, having improved his batting vastly against spinners during that four-year-period, walked out ahead of Yuvraj Singh, who was the man in form.
The rest is history. Dhoni’s knock of 91 from 79 balls probably exorcised his demons from 2007, where he could have scored the same number of runs and kept India alive in the tournament.
In the style of a true leader, MS Dhoni took it upon himself to take his team over the line. A lot could have gone wrong that night had Dhoni got out to either Muralitharan or Randiv. He had already been dismissed by spinners in previous matches against Ireland and West Indies (George Dockrell and Devendra Bishoo) but on a Wankhede wicket, which was not spinning much, Dhoni decided that this was his night.
After the match got over, he quietly slipped into the background, letting Sachin Tendulkar have his moment in front of a roaring and emotional Mumbai crowd.
The outsider
If you heard him talk off the field in his interviews, Dhoni did not seem to be in awe of the sport and his position as the Indian captain. He was more interested in talking about automobiles, dogs and the defence forces, all three of whom Dhoni dearly loves.
Maybe not being from a legitimate school of Indian cricket (Mumbai, Karnataka, Punjab or Tamil Nadu) helped him stay in sync with reality or perhaps it was his time in the railways, during which he was a nobody, taught him valuable lessons.
He got married without making any considerable noise and was not even present for his daughter’s birth, something which we take for granted, the arguments being, “usse thodi bachcha paida karna hai (does he have to give birth to the child?)” or “itne paise mil rahe hain, khelna chahiye (he is getting so much money, he should play).”
On 15th January, after almost a decade, the Indian limited overs side will walk out under the leadership of Virat Kohli, who is the “undisputed king” of the country’s cricketing diaspora. Behind the wickets will be his predecessor, who walked the undiscovered path before him to create an easy route and lay down the milestones for future success. What the entire world will miss is the experience called “Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Captain,” and that is a huge loss. Huge.
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