5 reasons why MS Dhoni was India's most loved captain

#3 Unique bowling changes

The pressure might have traded his black mane for grey hair, but Dhoni hardly let it show on his face, always looking to out-think the batsman with his surprising, sometimes outrageous changes. Lady luck shined bright on him, but the audacity to pull off astonishing decisions with a straight face was a marvel in itself.

It started off with the act of using Robin Uthappa and Virender Sehwag in their bowl-out against Pakistan in the 2007 World T20. While people hail him for sticking with Joginder Sharma in the last over of the tournament’s final, the team wouldn’t have progressed had he not pulled up a masterstroke by selecting three slow bowlers for the bowl-out, a trick that his opponents messed up badly.

As years passed, he repeated the deeds with multiple others. Keeping faith in Ishant Sharma, who bowled like an inspired man in his second spell in the Champions Trophy in 2013, giving the ball to an inexperienced Ravichandran Ashwin in the final of the 2011 World Cup, or more recently, including Kedar Jadhav’s unheard off-spin in the bowling line-up against New Zealand that surprisingly resulted in wickets: all were instances of his street smartness and immense belief in his understanding of the game. The rawness, impromptu decision making is non-pareil, and will surely be conspicuous by its absence.