Mahendra Singh Dhoni is widely regarded as one of the most successful captains in the history of the game. The former India wicketkeeper-batter, who led the side from 2007-2017, is the only captain to have lifted an ICC trophy across all formats of the game. Dhoni had steered India to inaugural T20 World Cup title in 2007 and also secured the ICC Test Mace twice in his career. In 2011, India won the ODI World Cup under MS Dhoni’s captaincy at home.
Dhoni’s name for captaincy was recommended by Sachin Tendulkar when the board had approached the former to succeed Rahul Dravid in the role. In an event organized by Infosys, Tendulkar revealed why he urged the BCCI to select a relatively young MS Dhoni as the skipper of the side; the wicketkeeper-batter was 26 when he was named the captain of the Indian team.
“This was in England when I was offered captaincy. I said we have a very good leader in the team who was still a junior, and he is someone you should look at closely. I have had a lot of conversations with him, more so on the field where I would be fielding at first slip and asked him, what do you think? Though Rahul was the captain but I would ask him and the feedback I received was very balanced, calm, yet very much matured,” Tendulkar said.
“Good captaincy is about being a step ahead of opposition. If one is smart enough to do that, like we say, josh se nahi, hosh se khelo (play sensibly). It doesn’t happen instantly, you won’t get 10 wickets in 10 balls. You have to plan it. At the end of the day, the scoreboard matters. And I saw those qualities in him. Hence, I recommended his name,” the former India batter further said.
Tendulkar was part of the Indian team that lifted the 2011 World Cup title under Dhoni’s captaincy. The ‘master blaster’, as he was fondly known, retired from the game in 2013 with Dhoni leading in Tendulkar’s last Test in Mumbai.
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