5 decisions taken by MS Dhoni which defined the roadmap of Indian cricket

#3 Making Rohit Sharma an opener in the shortest formats

Rohit Sharma is one of the most successful openers in ODI history

Rohit Sharma was always the talented one. It was evident in the way he timed the ball in the 2007 World T20. Inspite of having this outstanding ability, he somehow couldn't cement his place in the Indian team. He was always in and out of the team due to his inconsistent performances.This didn't deter MS Dhoni from selecting him time and again and giving him opportunities to prove himself at the highest level.

2013 Champions Trophy became a turning point in Rohit's career when he was asked to open. Before the tournament, he did not have success as an opener in the couple of warm up games. When people felt Murali Vijay would open with Shikhar Dhawan, Dhoni threw up a surprise by asking Rohit to open with Shikhar and the duo added 127 versus South Africa in the tournament opener and as they say the rest is history.

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan have become the second most successful opening pair for India with 13 century stands. They have dominated attacks all over the world and have a combined total of 35 ODI centuries between them.

Rohit has gone on to become one of the best openers in limited overs with a combined total of 22 centuries in ODIs and T20s. He has scored an unbelievable 3 double hundreds to go with the joint fastest T20 century in 35 balls.

This makes it quite clear why Dhoni always wanted Rohit in the side. What he had seen in 2007 with Rohit took some time to unfold in front of the cricketing world.