Mahendra Singh Dhoni - Leadership personified

MS Dhoni – the ‘cool’ leader

In sport, the leader or the captain is what makes a team click. And captaining a team like India where cricket is a religion is no mean feat.

Cricket is a sport that requires the services of a captain more than most other sports. The captain has to decide the team composition, set fields keeping the team strategies and the batsmen in mind, decide the batting order, make use of the bowlers according to match situations and at the same time, motivate the players and also perform his part in the team. If the captain falls short in any aspect, the consequences are most likely to be faced by not just the captain himself but the entire team.

Thus, for India to become the cricket team that it has, the captain would have to perform and keep all these aspects in perfect harmony. And that is exactly what MS Dhoni has achieved with the Indian cricket team.

Dhoni first came onto the scene in the series against subcontinental biggies like Sri Lanka and Pakistan where he scored 183* and 148 respectively. The world took notice of him as a batsman who could blast the ball with sheer brute force and could provide some strength in the Indian middle order.

The fact that he was a wicket-keeper just added to his credentials. But what few could see was that he was a future Indian captain in the making. And among the few was Sachin Tendulkar who spotted the leader in him and hence recommended him for captaincy for the World T20 in 2007.

The rest, as they say, is history.

THE HIGHS

2007-2011

WC-2007

From 2007, began MS Dhoni’s stint as captain. In the inaugural T20 World Cup, very few people gave the inexperienced youngsters of India a chance, as greats like Tendulkar and Dravid preferred not to play this format. Every team in the tournament was trying to get accustomed to this new way of cricket – playing fast, scoring fast, being sharp in the field and understanding the literal meaning of “catches win matches”, because the margin of defeat in this format is miniscule. Therefore, in this sense the most successful captain would have to be the one who could get used to and adapt to this format the fastest.

The unusual but attacking fielding setups, the odd selections, the continuous shuffling of bowlers was quite unheard of till MS Dhoni started doing all of these in 2007. But what made MS Dhoni successful was his willingness to gamble, to go with his gut without being worried about the consequence. This was what got India the inaugural T20 World Cup, when MS Dhoni decided to give Joginder Sharma the last over when Pakistan required 13 runs off 6 balls to win.

With Misbah on strike, the trophy was in touching distance of Pakistan, but the medium pacer answered to his captain’s trust and got Misbah’s wicket, helping India clinch the trophy. MS Dhoni was himself quite young at that time, but his ability to marshal youngsters came to the fore for the first time in that world cup. The team made the country believe that India could win tournaments even with a team that was comprised only of newbies and MS Dhoni surely had a role in instilling that belief.

WC-2011

WC 2011 was probably the most mentally taxing tournament for the Indian cricket team. It could’ve gone both ways. Losing the tournament would’ve meant losing it on home soil, smashing the expectations of a billion cricket fans. Moreover, every match leading up to the final was a high pressure one, be it the three time World champions Australia or arch rivals Pakistan, the Indian team was not given an inch.

But the match which brought the country to a standstill was the final against subcontinental rivals Sri Lanka. Chasing a more-than-decent total of 270 -odd, the Indian team were in trouble after losing two valuable wickets of Tendulkar and Sehwag, followed by the wicket of Gambhir and Kohli, both of whom played important knocks, but fell short of taking the team over the line.

After Kohli’s wicket, in came the out of form MS Dhoni who promoted himself up the order ahead of Yuvraj Singh making a brave move. Just when the team was in tatters, and at the risk of losing the final in front of the adoring yet demanding fans of the Wankhede, Dhoni’s blistering knock of 91* showed the world that pressure brings out the best in him. And the final again was an example of how Dhoni’s unique decison-making works in India’s favour more often than not.

The IPL rule

In 2008 began, one of the greatest and the most successful franchise cricket formats in the world – the IPL. IPL was unique in the sense that for the first time there was a shifting of rivalry between countries to rivalry between franchises, that consisted not just Indian players but also top international players. Through this tournament many of the Indian youngsters had the rare opportunity to mingle and share dressing rooms with the international bigwigs of the game.

By winning two IPL titles and one Champions League T20 title, MS Dhoni added another feather of excellence in his captaincy. No doubt, such tournament wins should be credited to other players like Raina, Hayden, Morkel etc., but the biggest role of all was probably MS Dhoni’s.

In the seasons that CSK won, MS Dhoni single-handedly won them many matches, be it through his innovative captaincy, or through his ability to judge match situations exceptionally well and then chasing and defending totals with equal aplomb. That is probably why CSK is the only team that has reached the play-offs every season.

THE LOWS

2011- 2012

England and Australian Series

The lows are felt only after you have reached the zenith of success. That is exactly what happened with India. After the exceptional highs of WC 2011, winning it at home, Indians had a string of defeats abroad. After the IPL season just after the WC, the Men In Blue maybe approached the English tournament heedlessly without any preparation, just riding high on reputation.

And then during the series all that could go wrong, did go wrong. The entire tour was marred by injuries and disappointing performances by the big guns such as Sachin, Laxman and even Dhoni. The Test series defeat was followed by relentless bashing in the ODI as well as the T20 series, The lone performer was the Great Wall of India – Rahul Dravid who took the burden of scoring as many runs as he could despite the lack of support at the other end.

But the misery did not end right there, it was to be followed by another series defeat at the hands of a relatively weak Australian side. After the disastrous tour down under, there was immense pressure on the captain. Despite his every move of his questioned , scrutinised and criticized, Dhoni exuded immense calm and that is another aspect of his personality that makes him a captain like no other – his ability to ride storms and survive them with unparalleled composure.

England And Pakistan Home Series

Just when one thought that things could not get worse, it did. England who had not won a series in India since 1984-85, managed to beat India on their home soil and the most disappointing thing was that they won it with their openers and spinners.

Calls to remove Dhoni from captaincy just kept getting louder. These voices amplified further when India lost the series against arch rivals Pakistan and that too at home. This indeed was unforgivable. At least in the eyes of an average Indian cricket lover.

A MIXED BAG

2013 – Present

2013 proved to be a good beginning for Dhoni. After three disastrous tours, a historical win against former World Champions proved that Dhoni wasn’t just a lucky captain. He made his own luck. A series fraught with rains (first day was washed out at Mohali) and slow pitches like the one at Hyderabad, Dhoni’s own performances as well as his captaincy just found its form again and everything seemed right.

The IPL season was going great as well, but then the fixing bomb exploded and those hurt most by the shrapnel were the adoring fans of CSK as well as cricket fanatics around the world. So, just when the country looked towards the leader ahead of the Champions Trophy to express and empathize with agony every cricket lover went through during that period, the captain remained mum.

The team then travelled England to play the Champions Trophy, the mini world-cup, as some call it.

The silence converted into performance. Every player on that Indian team was adamant to restore faith of fans in this beautiful game. And when India won the tournament, Indians fans needed nothing more. They forgot about the wounds and the shrapnel. An exciting final in which India seemed to be losing but ultimately won, made fans forget the hurt that was caused to them a few months back.

The Champions Trophy final was a repeat of the WC 2007 when Dhoni’s unusual tactics proved effective once again as he decided to bowl Ishant Sharma who was being taken to the cleaners before the fateful over that won India the match. This was followed by India winning the home series against West Indies, the farewell series of the master – Sachin Tendulkar.

Just when praises were being heaped on again and Dhoni was adorned by weird nicknames on news shows, Indians went abroad and lost two series consecutively, i.e against South Africa and New Zealand respectively. The questions and the voices calling for his head came back again.

Then came the Asia Cup, which brought a lot of smiles to the faces of all those who wanted Virat Kohli as the captain, as Dhoni was ruled out of the tournament because of a side strain. However, India losing the tournament made people miss the batsman and the wicket-keeper that Dhoni is. The roles that are taken for granted when he is captaining the side.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING DHONI

MS Dhoni is an unusual cricketer

He will take up responsibility for defeats and give the centre stage to others in victory.

He will not abuse his bowlers when they bowl half trackers but will instead give them the crucial last over.

He will call a settled player batting unbeaten on a century back to the crease, even when the player is out technically just to uphold the spirit of the game.

He will not come out to bat up the order when he is in form but will do that in the World Cup final when the pressure is crushing and of course when he is out-of form.

He will remain mum in controversy but will scream through his willow.

Then most importantly, he will be a wicket-keeper and a dominating presence in the middle order but will overshadow it all with his captaincy.

So, it doesn’t matter how many times his critics bash him for being defensive and for being silent when most are expected to speak up, MS Dhoni, the cricketer is something Indian fans would never ever have again.