Mahendra Singh Dhoni - Leadership personified

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.