MS Dhoni’s contribution to Indian cricket has been immense. He emerged as the leader during a time when Indian cricket was going through a transition phase. India had suffered a numbing loss in the 2007 World Cup and the future looked a bit bleak, with no proper direction as to who would take on the mantle of leading a cricket frenzy nation.
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Dhoni came to the forefront in 2007, leading a young Indian side to glory in the inaugral T20 World Cup, but even then not many would have bet on him being India’s most successful captain.
MS Dhoni’s decision to promote himself to number 4 in the 2011 World Cup final would rank as one of the most bold decisions of all time(in limited overs cricket). Dhoni just seemed to have a way of calling the right shots, but his powers were somehow limited to limited overs cricket, as the Indian team did not enjoy as much success in the Test format(mainly away).
The lowest point of Dhoni’s captaincy was in 2012 when India had suffered back to back whitewashes in England and Australia, putting Dhoni’s position as captain under serious doubt, and he was apparently set to be sacked by the Indian selection committee.
But N Srinivasan intervened and Dhoni continued as captain.
N Srinivasan revealed in Rajdeep Sardesai’s book that the selectors wanted Dhoni out but it was Srinivasan, who was the President of BCCI then, who vetoed that selectors’ call(including Mohinder Amarnath).
Dhoni then went onto have a very successful home season after that, thanks to a good judgement call from Srinivasan.
India would have self destructed if Dhoni would have been asked to step down, as Virat Kohli wasn’t ready to take up the Test captaincy then, as he himself was struggling to find his feet in the test circuit.
But better sense prevailed and Dhoni was kept on as captain, giving Kohli the time to settle into the Test format and ultimately inherit the test captaincy from Dhoni in 2014.
