Dressing Room - MS Dhoni

Hi, this is Malvika and in this series called Dressing room, we take a look at MS Dhoni’s career.

It will be interesting to see what MS Dhoni’s resting heart rate would be. The man never seems to lose his cool. His teammates have said that even when the Indian team was going through its miserable tours of England and Australia in 2011, Dhoni was a picture of cool and never lashed out as captain on any of them. But don’t be fooled, just because he is cool all the time, doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. Beneath the cool exterior is a steely determination, a very resolute man, who has always been very clear of what he wants to achieve and how he wants to achieve it. It is for these reasons that under him India has won 3 global ICC events (the 2007 world T20, 2011 World Cup and the 2013 ICC Champion’s trophy). He is still the only captain in the world who has led his team to all 3 ICC limited overs trophies. His team was also the top-ranked Test team for a period from 2009 to 2011.

Not a quick journey to India colours

To think that cricket was not even his first love. Football it was and he played as a goalkeeper for his district and club team in Ranchi. In fact, it was his football coach who asked Dhoni to try his hands at cricket. He impressed all with his wicket-keeping skills. He was already in his mid-teens when he started to seriously focus on cricket and started rising through the ranks as an aggressive batsman-keeper. His performances in the domestic and in particular the “A” team matches caught the selectors’ eyes and years but it was another keeper, Dinesh Karthik, who was elevated to the Indian Team. There is an interesting anecdote about this which speaks a lot about Dhoni’s self-confidence and general outlook. During one of the “A” team tours in 2004 to Kenya, Dhoni was bowling and giving batting practice to Dinesh Karthik. His fellow teammate Akash Chopra noticed this and asked him why he was helping out his “competitor” for the keeper’s spot in the Indian side. Dhoni’s reply “I just love bowling, if you want some practice, I will bowl for you as well. As far as playing for India is concerned, no one can stop me if I am good enough”

Good enough he certainly was. In the early 2000s, all cricketing teams wanted an ‘Adam Gilchrist’ in their team. A swashbuckling keeper batsman. India had to make do with Rahul Dravid manfully agreeing to keep but that was not a permanent option. India tried Karthik but he wasn’t consistent enough so they opted for Dhoni, whose big-hitting abilities were well known by then. So, in December 2004 – Dhoni made his ODI debut as a 23-year-old.

Grabbing his opportunity

After a few Initial hiccups, Dhoni started shining in India colours too. He quickly scored his maiden ODI hundred in Vizag against Pakistan in 2005, he followed it up later that year by scoring 183 not out against Sri Lanka successfully helping India chase down a huge target. These performances, to go with his long mane, endeared him to the general public who loved his cavalier approach. These performances also earned him a test debut in 2005.

His impressive performances in ODI cricket continued into 2006. He performed particularly well against Pakistan in Pakistan in 2006, continued to help India chase down targets thus getting a reputation of being a finisher. His long hair also won a fan in the then President of Pakistan, General Musharraf who said this after one of the matches “ A lot of placards in the crowd have suggested that you should get a haircut, but if you take my advice, you look good in the hairstyle”

Dhoni’s impressive on-field performances continued and in 2006, he became the number 1 ODI batsman as per ICC rankings.

Captain Dhoni comes to the Fore

India had a poor world cup in 2007 and some people wanted India to have a relook at their ODI set up and bring in younger, fitter players.

Then the T20 world cup was the next big ICC tournament to be held in South Africa. After a long and grueling tour to England in 2007, some of the senior players of the team like Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Zaheer Khan decided to opt out of the tournament. It was Tendulkar who felt that the tournament should be a chance for India to try out younger players and also recommended Dhoni’s name for captain. Dhoni’s ability to read situations and plan and play accordingly impressed Tendulkar too.

So India went into the tournament with many players who were not yet established international players. It also reflected India’s attitude towards this format of the game as prior to this tournament India had played only one T20I game. On the eve of the tournament, Dhoni made a statement that he felt India had a good chance to win the cup. Many a pundit and fan scoffed.

Now we all know how it panned out. This win came as it did from no-where (pleasantly) shocked the world and can easily be said to have been one of the most important moments in modern cricket history.

What also impressed everyone was the manner in which this young Indian side played, a reflection of the player leading it. They never gave an inch, met aggression with aggression, and did not give up whatever the situation. Dhoni’s captaincy was also very impressive during the tournament – the way he rotated the bowling and batting order, his unique field placings. Everyone remembers that he famously gave the last over of the final to a fringe player in Joginder Sharma but in one of the games he also swapped his pads to bowl an over because he saw it to be the best option.

He was appointed captain of the ODI team thereafter and also of the Test team in November 2008.

He further enhanced his reputation as a finisher and astute captain in the ODI series in Australia, by helping India chase down many targets and also ensuring that the team won a tournament in Australia for the first time.

His real skill lay in understanding the situation of the game and also reading what the opposition was likely to do. He always planned ahead. As captain, he was also someone who extracted the best out of the resources he had. This enabled him to lead his country to be the best test playing side as well ( No.1 ranked by ICC).

The Big win in 2011 and an Important win in 2013

Now that Dhoni had won the T20 cup and taken his team to No.1 in test rankings, all of India was desperate to win the World cup at home. India kept playing well as a team and were progressing towards the final but Dhoni’s personal form was a cause of worry. Dhoni seemed to be missing his batting Mojo India reached the final and were chasing a big target. They lost 3 wickets with still a lot to chase and the run rate mounting. The in-form Yuvraj was next but Dhoni did what no one expected – he promoted himself ahead to ensure he controlled the chase. An out of form batter up to that point seemed a picture of serenity out in the middle and his determination saw his country through to the win. The winning six that Dhoni hit in the final is perhaps the most memorable finishing shot ever hit by an Indian. This was also perhaps one of the rare times Dhoni showed some emotion on the field, the tears in the eyes after the win gave it away.

After the win, Tendulkar remarked “he is the best captain I have played under” about Dhoni. Bear in mind that Tendulkar played under captains like Dravid, Ganguly, Azhar and Kumble too.

Two years later India arrived in England for the Champion’s trophy with a much younger squad – many heroes of 2011 WC win such as Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Sehwag and Gambhir missing. Was this team capable of winning in foreign conditions? People felt that Dhoni lucked out in 2011 to have a team full of stars, now was a real test of his captaincy.

Once again, Dhoni proved all wrong – apart from a strong batting line up his side was one of the best fielding sides in the tournament and his bowling changes, particularly in the final enabled India to win.

Dhoni the IPL (Super) King

IPL is synonymous with him, IPL is Dhoni. India’s win in 2007 opened up a market for the shortest format in India and the richest cricket league came about. It ushered in a windfall for many ‘domestic’ players too giving them a chance to earn big bucks.

Dhoni has mostly played for the Chennai Superkings in the IPL. They say he is one of the most popular men in Chennai. Thanks to Dhoni, CSK do not ever have to play an ‘away’ game in the IPL. The tag of India’s favourite son got passed down from Sachin to Dhoni.

He has also been one of the most successful IPL captains too, winning 3 trophies with the team. He also plays in the IPL totally burden free. Losing an IPL match is not as severe as losing a match for your country so Dhoni does not attach a premium to his wicket and really smashes it from the get go. This has resulted in many an audacious innings. The more we watch Dhoni in the IPL, the more we realize just how cut out he is for this format.

Towards the Twilight

Dhoni could never replicate the success he had as a player in the shorter formats to the Test arena. While, like his idol, Adam Gilchrist, he has played many game-altering innings in the ODI format, he could not replicate as many in the test arena too.

India boasts of a very capable bowling attack these days, one that is expected to take 20 wickets in all conditions and different countries, however, it was not the case when Dhoni was captain.

It was also during his time as captain too that many greats of Indian cricket retired leaving him with a much-weakened side. However, he battled on but the losses in the test area and advancing years ensured he was not enjoying test cricket as much. With a view to manage his workload towards the 2019 world cup he decided to retire from test cricket.

Shortly thereafter, he also gave up the ODI and T20 captaincy. Recently, he was dropped from the India T20 side meaning that the 2019 world cup will be his last. He is still one of the fittest cricketers around.

He has given his best for the Indian team and had an extended time as captain of the team, where he was constantly under scrutiny. He did all this in his unassuming, cool and collected manner.

Dhoni outside of cricket is a cool cat. He loves his bikes and has a collection numbering into the 100s that he can sometimes be seen zooming around on. We all saw him first with his long ‘biker’ locks, while he has since shortened the length of his hair he keeps changing his hairstyle.

He is a fit man, and has said in interviews that he loves drinking milk and in his younger days used to consume 1 litre of buffalo milk daily. That he felt was the source of his strength.

Many of us saw the movie so know that Dhoni met his wife Sakshi in Kolkata at the Taj Bengal hotel in 2008 where she worked as an intern, but the whole truth is that she was introduced to him through his manager. Dhoni and she were from the same school though he was 7 years her senior. After their first meeting, Dhoni got her number from his manager and thus began a period of wooing culminating in them getting married in July 2010. They have been blessed with a baby girl, Ziva, in 2015.

Dhoni is also very witty and his quips have been legendary – one of the most famous ones was coining the term “Sir Ravindra Jadeja”. The internet is full of clips and articles about Dhoni playing a prank or a joke on one of his teammates. He has also never felt shy of speaking his mind or as he saw it during press conferences as well.

While not captain anymore, the stump mic still picks up Dhoni giving invaluable tips to the players on the field.

We hope he gets the swansong a player of his caliber richly deserves. We hope he gets to retire on his own terms.