Mahendra Singh Dhoni recently announced that he is retiring from test cricket with immediate effect midway during the series between India and Australia. Not many people expected him to take such a big decision during the course of a series but Dhoni, being the practical man he is, made his decision in the best interest of the team and himself. 33 years normally isn’t an age where many people retire from test cricket but MSD made his decision for reasons known only to him. Having said that, It is always good to retire when people ask why instead of when people why isn’t?
Dhoni flashed on the Indian cricket arena out of nowhere in the 2000’s and went onto become one of the greatest cricketers the country has ever produced. Here is my view about the three different roles he donned for India,
As Captain:
There is little or no doubt that he is the most successful Indian Captain ever. Statistics & number of trophies India won under him prove this point. For me, he is among top 3 Skippers that India has ever seen in ODI’s and T20 internationals. As captain, he won all major limited over tournaments like t20 international world cup in 2007, one-day international world cup in 2011 and champions trophy in England. He brought calmness to the job & never hesitated to employ unorthodox plans on the field. Under his captaincy, he handled both seniors and juniors in a matured & sophisticated manner and extracted best performances from them. Under his rein, India has seen less number of controversies.
Dhoni, the test captain wasn’t as successful as the ODI captain. Yes he is the most successful test captain of India. India won more number of tests under him than anybody else. India were top ranked team in tests for about 18months under him. But his test captaincy came under scrutiny after 2011 because of big losses overseas on a continuous basis. India lost test matches in South Africa, England and Australia in a humiliating manner. Some come to his rescue by saying that he didn’t have the bowlers who had the potential to take 20 wickets overseas. That is true to an extent but all these never stopped people questioning his abilities as test captain.
On overall, Dhoni is an exceptional captain in all formats. India is really blessed to have a captain like him for so many years.
As ODI and T20 Player:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is definitely among all-time greats of ODI’s. He is the best finisher the game has seen in a long time. In ODI’s and t20’s he scored runs across the globe against every possible opponent. His strike rate, average and number of times he has been not out at the end of the innings all re-affirm the fact that he is the best in the business. During early days of his career, he was aggressive right from the word go but as he grew in experience, he became more calculative about the shots he played and valued his wicket very much. Even behind the wickets he did perform his job amazingly and never allowed people to question his abilities as a keeper.
As a Test Player:
All the above said things can’t be said in the same manner as far as Dhoni, the test player is concerned. For some strange reasons, he always struggled to carry his limited overs potential and capabilities into tests. But that doesn’t mean that he is a bad player in test cricket. Even in tests, his numbers are pretty good. But people expected him to be as good as in one-day internationals, which wasn’t the case at the end of the day.
And finally he decided to quit playing tests by the end of 2014. India might find it hard to find a perfect replacement to him just like it did to find for Nayan Mongia until Dhoni emerged onto the screen.
On a whole, Dhoni, both as a captain and batsman had a deep impact on Indian cricket. Even in terms of popularity, he is only second to Sachin Tendulkar as far as Indian cricket is concerned.
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