Mahendra Singh Dhoni one of the most familiar names in recent times. A guy who was born in a small town at Ranchi in 1981. Who started his schooling career as a footballer, later turned to a cricketer by his school physical education master. Who worked very hard to balance both his education and cricketing career. Dhoni is famous for his instinct. At a point in time he was in a situation where he is supposed to quit his railway job to pursue his cricketing career. Without hesitations or delays he quit his job and dedicated his life to achieve his dream.
Lot of people know, what he’s capable of, his strength, his attitude etc. He is one of the best captains India has ever had. The way he handles pressure is something humongous. Taking the game till the very last over in both setting and chasing the target and accomplishes it successfully most of the times. The main reason for his success is he doesn’t take anything to his heart, be that victory or defeat. He simply tries to improve everytime and perform better and better.
I would like to say four examples where Dhoni has proven he’s a genius. First one would be the 2007 T20 world cup in South Africa. Team India was completely shattered after the World Cup defeat against Bangladesh in which we couldn’t even enter the Super 8. For no reason Dhoni’s house was attacked. Then later that year Dhoni was handed over the captaincy, and all the senior players were not ready to play the T20 World Cup since they felt T20 is not a proper cricketing format. Dhoni and all the young players marched on and won the tournament by beating Pakistan in a nail biting contest.
Second would be the INDIA – AUSTRALIA – SRILANKA tri-series. This was one another interesting series which proved Dhoni’s ability to lead. Finals of the series was a best of 3 game and srilanka did not qualify for the finals, it was between India and Australia. Australian captain Ricky ponting in a press meet before the 1st final said that his team doesn’t need 3 finals and they would beat India in the first 2 games and lift the trophy directly. But Dhoni had other ideas and that idea was to implement what pointing said his team will do. And he did implement that and defeated Australia in the first 2 games and lifted the trophy.
Third would be the World Cup 2011 which was held in india. Considering all the previous incidents which happened during the 2007 world cup, team India was on a huge pressure and losing with a quality team would again cause a lot of problems. But without thinking about anything Dhoni and co had a blistering start to the world cup. They defeated almost all the popular teams including Australia in quater finals and Pakistan in semi finals. Finals was against Sri Lanka in Mumbai, one of most exciting match which each and every indian would cherish even if they watch it today.
Finally the Champions trophy 2013 in England, before the tournament a lot of questions were put up about the openers, about the foreign conditions and the pace and bounce it holds etc. Dhoni again with his instinct he asked Rohit Sharma to open the innings. It was indeed a huge call since Rohit was not on a proper form and the conditions were really hard for the batsmen to survive. But Rohit proved what he’s capable of and held Dhoni’s name high. Next about the pace and bounce which the track might hold. Due to the windy and breezy conditions ball doesn’t have enough grip which created a hard time for the bowlers. Fortunately since India had to spinners they were able to manage and win the tournament.
When considering all the above aspects from Dhoni, we can clearly understand and learn that patience is a key factor for the development. If Dhoni did not back Rohit and Kholi, today team India would be down and under. India lost the 2019 world cup at 19:29 hrs. And dhoni makes an announcement stating to consider him as retired since 19:29 hrs. He never admires or like a farewell or a send off. He came, he saw, he conquered, he left silently. No publicity or no media conference, but a simple instagram post. One major thing that we can learn from him is his calmness and composure, if we practice both, we could also certainly reach heights.
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