MS DHONI - RE-DEFINING CAPTAINCY

Mahendra Singh Dhoni - Enough has been said about this great Legend, who is arguably the greatest captain of all time. Dhoni is not only favourite to other cricketing legends, but also to many columnists, writers and to a larger group called Fans. Has any one done justice to dissect his personality and traits and cricketing acumen and tried to analyse it in detail ? Still, one would be amazed at the way, MSD functions on a cricket field with his thinking cap on.

Off the field, He talks straight and addresses the media and press with a straight face, trying hard to explain his actions on the field and cricketing brain behind his decisions. He has done almost everything to prove that he is the best captain India has ever had. He is currently on his way to prove that he is arguably one of the best captain the World of cricket has ever had. Dhoni has always put heavy price on the Process rather than the Results and the latter went in search of MSD most of the times.

No captain would absorb the pressure so much as the way MSD does. Few instances that come to our mind are the last over finishes during the triangular tournament in West Indies, one against Australia in Adelaide, a tied match against Sri Lanka few days later, World cup 2011 finish and many more death overs magic while setting the targets. But, these would only attribute to the Dangerous finisher in Dhoni. Probably, Michael Bevan did it with equal consistency as Dhoni himself and currently AB De Villiers could be added to the list. One thing though, that sets apart Dhoni from others, would be the tremendous self confidence and conviction with which he overcomes that Pressure.

As if this challenge was not enough, he has the MOST TOUGHEST challenge of leading the country, where expectations are huge and unfortunately, the captain's calibre is judged merely by results and where memories of people function like Bollywood's Ghajini. The Fans, crowd, critics, Media, Ex-Players (not all) are only worried about the current series in hand and would question the captain's moves depending on the Series win or a loss. Hardly these critics realised that Dhoni would carry the winning streak and make a team climb up the Champion dias, even if the playing eleven was Lagaan team and Aamir Khan was replaced by Dhoni as Captain, just like the way Bailey allowed Michael Clarke to take over in this world cup.

MSD is always on top of the rules of the game and the scope of his field placements for a specific bowler. He Knows the strength of each Individual and definitely knows the weaknesses better. With his clever bowling changes and field placements, he chokes the opponents for runs at crucial stages of the game, the surprising part would be that India's best bowler need not be in action at that point. Any Bowler would love to have MSD as their captain, for this same reason that they can be thrown the ball at any stage and asked to bowl to a plan or strategy as demanded by Dhoni. Of course, Bowler is responsible for bowling to his own field and Dhoni adds value to the process many a times. Examples are aplenty.

Some of his broad thinking has received due accolades from the Selectors of Indian team and paved way for Indians to dominate world cricket for over 7 years term under him.

1. Prior to a World cup, each player should have at least played minimum of 50 ODIs, with the exception of few young talents.
2. A Talent should be backed up by Selectors as well as Captain, even if there are string of failures of one Individual, which does not affect the performance of the team.
3. Three days of intense Practice sessions is more beneficial than 6 days of mediocre practice sessions during the time of big tournaments.
4. Football and other sports activities are also part of the warm-up sessions for the Indian cricket team on a regular basis.
5. Any harsh decisions on selection of teams and Replacement could only be done at the end of a series or prior to the start of series.

Dhoni has re-defined Captaincy, as in the Scope of a Leader or a Captain is so pivotal to keep away all the bad omens away from the set of players, which would make them focus only on the game and nothing else. Dhoni has backed the Selectors, allowing them to pick the talents from India and would play with the bunch identified by Selectors, with the exception of backing few talents who have turned as big match winners for India. Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma have all won matches for India single handedly, which would not have happened, had it not been for the back-up provided by MSD. Yes, the likes of Ricky Ponting arguably did the same for Australians, but he was not calm and collective as Dhoni during his successful tenure. Dhoni has backed the different Cricket Coaches that were with the team and has always passed on the right messages to the critics that it is the responsibility of players to turn out results. Dhoni knows the exact scope of the support staff and would never interfere with them, taking advantage of his role as a captain. Controversies surrounded this guy and he stood for what is right, because he was always right.

Just as a magician pulls the rabbit out of the hat, Dhoni has marshalled his resources to win games from the jaws of defeat on numerous occasions. MSD Transcends Captaincy and is by far the only philosopher of this game. His Philosophy is simple, Give your best and leave the rest to Destiny. Great testimony to that is when he threw the ball to Joginder Sharma telling him "Just give your best, I would not mind even if we lose". Champions trophy final in 2013 was another prime example as to how a match could be won by clever field placements and attacking bowling options. One might call him lucky, but his risk taking abilities are attributes which is not possessed even by greatest captains this game has seen. Dhoni's mind is a Calculator, no doubt, as he visualises one of his bowler bowling the death over, when first 10 overs are in progress. Its a quality, which could be achieved, when a Captain does a complete back ground of the Pitch conditions and what the ground conditions have to offer to the teams. Needless to say, Captain should be on top of the game and be instinctive to make some changes, which works in team's favour.

M S Dhoni is not Instinctive captain totally. At times, he has been very patient with the bowlers and Batsmen, who want to make a name for themselves in longer format of the game, by playing session by session and hour by hour. Test Cricket is more challenging for the Captains, as there would be more schedule of play, where Captain's control in the game is lesser and lesser. Dhoni struggled here with the new test team and inconsistent performance of the youngsters. Not many realised the fact that Dhoni won many hearts here too, by building the next generation Test team and nicely handing it over to Virat Kohli, after the retirement of Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman and Kumble. Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Sreesanth may be the slots which needs to be filled by the Bowling department and Dhoni tried his best by backing Ishant, Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron to fill the slots. Ashwin has filled in the slot left by Harbhajan.

Dhoni's achievements is for every one to see and to put it simply, He is a Blessing for Indian Cricket and Let's leave at it.