World Champions back then, Australian cricket team was a force to reckon with in the first decade of this century. Winning against the Aussies was a daunting task more often than not but legendary Indian captain MS Dhoni stopped Rohit Sharma from celebrating a 5-wicket win against them during a Commonwealth Bank Series 2008 league match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
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This was just the sixth ODI innings for then 20-year old Sharma and he was bound to celebrate like any other youngster would’ve. He played a mindful knock of 39* (61) which helped his side to register a win. However, a gesture from Dhoni was enough for Rohit to tone down his excitement despite playing an unbeaten knock in a run-chase for the first time in his career.
It is impossible to predict what Dhoni is thinking both as a batter and captain. His unconventional thought process is loved by many around the world. The wicket-keeper had his own reasons for not celebrating their first white-ball win of the tour.
Why MS Dhoni Stopped Rohit Sharma And Other Indian Players From Celebrating Win vs Australia
Prominent journalist Bharat Sundaresan had mentioned in his book titled ‘The Dhoni Touch: Unravelling the Enigma That Is Mahendra Singh Dhoni’ as to why the most successful Indian captain was in no mood to celebrate on the night of February 10, 2008.
Then-Australian captain Ricky Ponting believed that every defeat was an “Upset” for them as they were the best team in the business. This was the fourth match of a triangular series also featuring Sri Lanka, and Australia managed to score just 159 runs. The Indian pace trio of Ishant Sharma (4/38), S Sreesanth (3/31) and Irfan Pathan (2/26) had rattled over the Kangaroos after Ponting won the toss and chose to bat.
Struggling at 102/5 at one stage, a 58-run sixth-wicket partnership between Sharma and Dhoni earned a victory for the Indian team. When India needed 10 runs to win, Dhoni had called for a needless change of batting gloves.
This was intentionally done to send a message to the dressing room. The signal was loud and clear that none will celebrate on the balcony after sealing the win. Dhoni thought that if the team will celebrate wildly after winning a league match, it will sound like a fluke to the Australian team.
The wicket-keeper wanted to tell the entire world that it was not a once-in-a-blue-moon thing and it will happen on a continuous basis. This was not an upset in any sense. It can be said that it was an elite mentality of a comparatively inexperienced captain. India eventually won the CB Series where they defeated the home team twice in a three-match final series.
MS Dhoni Captaincy Record Against Australia
Dhoni’s overall record against Australia was not that great as captain. He led in 83 matches against the Aussies across all formats, where India managed to win just 39 matches. In T20Is and Tests, Dhoni’s win percentage was over 55%, but India struggled in ODIs against this opposition.
| Format | Matches | Won | Lost | Drawn/Tied | No Result | Win% |
| Test | 14 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 57.14% |
| ODIs | 52 | 21 | 26 | 0 | 5 | 40.38 |
| T20Is | 17 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 58.82% |
Dhoni certainly would have wanted to do well in ODIs against the record World Champions.
