There is no going into a safe house around the fact that the legendary MS Dhoni has achieved almost everything a captain can in the sport of cricket. For those who don’t know, he is the only skipper to have won a trio comprising T20 World Cup, ODI World Cup and Champions Trophy.
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When it comes to him being an overall package also consisting of a wicket-keeper batter, you wouldn’t find any other international cricketer with a workload which matches that of Dhoni. However, the very same Dhoni has also lost a lot at the highest level.
Dhoni, who led India to victories in ICC World Twenty20 2007, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and ICC Champions Trophy 2013, missed out in seven global tournaments namely World Twenty20 2009, Champions Trophy 2009, World Twenty20 2010, World Twenty20 2012, World Twenty20 2014, World Cup 2015 and World Twenty20 2016.
MS Dhoni Was On The Verge Of Being Sacked In 2012
While Dhoni’s above mentioned losses in ICC tournaments never really brought his captaincy under threat, losing eight consecutive overseas Tests in 2011-2012 were enough for then-chief selector Mohinder Amarnath to devise a proposal to sack him.
Having toured England less than four months after winning the 2011 World Cup, India had lost all four Test matches which included a couple of innings defeats. The exact same was their fate on the Australian tour later that year which called for a disastrous phase for the Test team outside home.
Speaking to CNN-IBN as quoted by ESPNCricinfo, Amarnath had disclosed how BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) denied the prospect of removing Dhoni as a Test captain. N Srinivasan, then-BCCI president, intervened in between to save Dhoni’s leadership future which obviously wasn’t appreciated by Amarnath.
“We selected the team for the triangular series [featuring Sri Lanka in Australia], selected 17 players but we did not select the captain. The captain was selected by somebody else,” Amarnath had said.
“When you respect a person, you don’t ask questions. But my question is, you have a selection committee, those who think what is best for Indian cricket, then why they are not given a free hand?”
Dhoni, who had led India to 17 Test wins, 10 defeats and as many draws by the end of the tour of Australia, was only behind Sourav Ganguly (21 wins as captain) in the list of most Test wins as Indian captain at the time.
Srinivasan, who was BCCI’s president until 2013 before being replaced by Jagmohan Dalmiya (on an interim basis) is also the owner of the Indian Premier League franchise Chennai Super Kings (led by Dhoni till date). With the two going back a long way, an astute Srinivasan had strategically bought Dhoni for $1,500,000 during the maiden IPL auction in 2008.
MS Dhoni Is India’s Second-Best Test Captain
While it’s very difficult to compare captains across generations due to varying situations and resources, Dhoni is still the second-best Indian Test captain considering a simple metric such as number of wins. Former captain Virat Kohli, Dhoni’s successor, surpassed him to reach the top position. As compared to Dhoni’s 27 Test wins, Kohli had led India to victories in the format 40 times.
After the aforementioned England and Australia tours, Dhoni led India in 23 more Tests winning 10, losing eight and drawing five. Not that these numbers are underwhelming per se, they are certainly not in accordance with Dhoni’s achievements in white-ball formats.
During Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2014-15 away from home, Dhoni had announced a surprising Test retirement. Citing a strain of playing all three formats, Dhoni had stepped away from the ancestral format after drawing the second Test in Melbourne. Kohli, who was named India’s Test captain on a permanent basis, had cried before then-girlfriend Anushka Sharma upon receiving the distinction.
