When one of the best cricket captains India has seen retires, the fans’ minds will be filled with that creative face as he climbs the mountain of victories and the strength of his will-filled struggle in many innings full of drama. The captaincy of that genius, who cannot be compared in any way to those who are fascinated by the textbooks of cricket, is one of India’s most successful. The fact that Dhoni is the only captain to have won all three ICC Trophies for India is due to the extraordinary and different decisions he has made during his time at the helm.
When Dhoni scored his highest ODI score against Sri Lanka in 2005 (183 not out), he had completed just one year in the Indian team. After the match, Sri Lankan captain Marvan Attapattu said of Dhoni’s innings: “No matter how you throw, no matter which bowler you bring, it doesn’t change.” Dhoni’s skill in tackling any type of ball has made him one of the best finishers in ODI cricket. Dhoni transformed ODI cricket into one where even the best scores can be achieved with a good ‘finisher’ in the team.
Dhoni can be compared to former Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya in filling the field with shots that are not in the textbooks. It was Jayasuriya who changed the concept of opening in ODI cricket. Jayasuriya’s style was to give the team a solid base to continue scoring down the line. During Jayasuriya’s tenure, other cricket teams were forced to change the game plan of ODI cricket to score 100 runs in the first 15 overs. While Jayasuriya was one of the greatest openers of all time in ODI cricket with his innings surpassing textbook shots, Dhoni became one of the greatest ‘finishers’ ever seen in ODI cricket in a similar style.
If openers like Jayasuriya had played with the confidence that the best batsmen would come after him, Dhoni played as it was doomsday after him in many innings. Dhoni, who was just ahead of the tail-end in the batting line-up, often came to the crease with the conviction that if he lost grip of the game India would be defeated. Dhoni was able to save the game when teammates were often unsure of when to change batting to slow and high depending on the situation. Despite being at the bottom of the batting line-up, Dhoni is one of the leading ODI cricketers to score 10,000 runs.
Dhoni, who handled three areas simultaneously: captaincy, batting and wicket-keeping, was instrumental in balancing the team. When India won the World Cup in 2011, the team was not the best in the world. It is noteworthy that a former cricketer observed that despite having a solid batting line-up, Dhoni led the team to a world title with only one or two top bowlers and that it was his unique and decisive decisions that made the best use of the resources available to him.
When Kapil Dev and Tendulkar retired, fans were saddened that there wouldn’t be another like them anymore. The same is true of Dhoni. Only Dhoni is equal to Dhoni. He has retained the skill to get the most out of limited resources, both in his game and in his captaincy. It is this extraordinary skill that makes Dhoni unique.
