𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙈𝙎 𝘿𝙃𝙊𝙉𝙄 𝙀𝙍𝘼

7th July, the birth date of a person who is inspiration of millions of people across the globe. The one without whom Indian Cricket can’t be imagined, who structured his path himself from TC to TC. Yes from ticket collector to trophy collector. The only captain in the world to win all three ICC trophies, sharpest leader , best finisher and the one who redefined the art of wicket keeping – MS DHONI. 

2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, India went as the favorites in the tournament. Of course when you have legendary players in the team like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid ,VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly no one can sideline you. But the reality is India got knocked out of the tournament in the group stage only. Can you guess the opponent who knocked us out? No it’s not Australia or England. It was the Bangladesh. And this loss was considered as the biggest upset in Indian Cricket. Due to shame back then Rahul Dravid left the captaincy. And the star players like Sachin Tendulkar made themselves unavailable for the inaugural ICC T20 world cup edition. This is how Dhoni got the captaincy of the team for the world cup and we all know what happened after that. Without much experienced players in the side he led India to win the world cup. The team which went South Africa just to participate with no expectations was the world champions. 

That was the beginning of the Dhoni Era… “I would go to war with Dhoni by my side”- Sir Gary Kirsten.

 A leader is one who prepares future leader. 2012 -2013 whole world criticized Dhoni for sidelining players like Gambhir and Sehwag in the playing eleven as the Champions Trophy was approaching as well. Till today some journalists and sports officials believe that Dhoni is responsible for finishing the career of the two. Bur no one sees the real reason behind it which was to promote more youngsters and prepare them for future. And that’s what happened in 2013 Gambhir and Sehwag were not included in the champion’s trophy and were replaced by the young Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. Result of that was the duo showcased scintillating performances in the tournament, India won the champions trophy with Shikhar Dhawan holding the golden bat for most runs and today Rohit Sharma is seen as one of the greats in Indian Cricket. 

Suresh Raina writes in his book ‘believe’ about his bond with him and level to which he took every single game with same level of commitment and passion. The man who missed birth of his baby girl due to the world cup in 2015 saying “I am on national duties so everything else can wait” then I don’t think anyone can question about his commitment and seriousness towards the game. 

Talking about his personal stats if you look at his first and the last international match (co-incidentally both in which we was run out) you will probably say he doesn’t fit in the Indian team. But man look at the larger picture , a middle order batsman having an average of 50 plus in ODI’S. I am not joking you can google as well. I don’t think anyone could ever think of such record for a middle order batsman if he was not there. And how can I forget the famous ‘helicopter shot’ that he invented and nowadays is being used by many cricketers. 

Having such an aura in the world that when 15 runs are required in the 6 balls with Dhoni on strike then great commentators like Ian Bishop says that “pressure is on the bowler not on Ms Dhoni”. People of South India don’t cheer his name in the match, they call him ‘Thala’(which means leader in tamil). 

And such simplicity and selflessness that gave up his captaincy of his own so that new captain gets enough time for the next world cup preparation, announced his retirement on twitter on 15th August, 2020 without any farewell match or any grand celebration.

 That’s Ms Dhoni for you…..