With no worthy replacement, these are the checks and balance to say that MS Dhoni is the keeper of India’s faith.
Throughout his fabled captaincy career, Dhoni has appraised many a cricketer of varying reputation. Sometimes openly in press conferences, at other times privately during selection meetings, but always brutally impersonally. His sharp, uncluttered mind cut the noise and saw things as they were. If he deemed Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir-nine months after they had won him the 2011 World Cup-were conceding 20-30 runs in the field, he would say so, coldly cutting close to the bone. He would figure out pretty soon that Ajinkya Rahane, for all his promise and overseas batting record, wasn’t cut out for a middle-order role in limited-overs cricket.
Time is a great leveller, however, and the old Dhoni is not the Dhoni of old. There’s a tangible decline in his contributions with bat, and the question he once asked of others is begging to be asked of him now. But the one whose decision matters, Virat Kohli, remains convinced he needs Dhoni for the 2019 World Cup in England. The incumbent India skipper Kohli, as tough and demanding as he is, often betrays the impression of being emotionally invested in his picks. His predecessor, notwithstanding murmurs of a bias towards a few Chennai Super Kings players, was detached. It makes you wonder how Dhoni would’ve audited his recent performances. To go back to the movie, would Dhoni 2018 fit in Dhoni 2011’s team?
He made his One Day International (ODI) debut in December 2004 against Bangladesh, and played his first Test a year later against Sri Lanka. Dhoni has been the recipient of many awards, including the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2008 and 2009 (the first player to win the award twice), the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 2007, the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour, in 2009 and the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour, in 2018.[8] He was named as the captain of the ICC World Test XI in 2009, 2010 and 2013. He has also been selected a record 8 times in ICC World ODI XI teams, 5 times as captain. The Indian Territorial Army conferred the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel[9] to Dhoni on 1 November 2011. He is the second Indian cricketer after Kapil Dev to receive this honour.
Dhoni also holds numerous captaincy records such as the most wins by an Indian captain in Tests, ODIs and T20Is, and most back-to-back wins by an Indian captain in ODIs. He took over the ODI captaincy from Rahul Dravid in 2007 and led the team to its first-ever bilateral ODI series wins in Sri Lanka and New Zealand. In June 2013, when India defeated England in the final of the Champions Trophy in England, Dhoni became the first captain to win all three ICC limited-overs trophies (World Cup, Champions Trophy and the World Twenty20). After taking up the Test captaincy in 2008, he led the team to series wins in New Zealand and the West Indies, and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2008, 2010 and 2013. In 2009, Dhoni also led the Indian team to number one position for the first time in the ICC Test rankings.
In 2013, under his captaincy, India became the first team in more than 40 years to whitewashAustralia in a Test series. In the Indian Premier League, he captained the Chennai Super Kings to victory at the 2010, 2011and 2018 seasons, along with wins in the 2010 and 2014 editions of Champions League Twenty20. In 2011, Time magazine included Dhoni in its annual Time 100 list as one of the “Most Influential People in the World.”[10] Dhoni holds the post of Vice-President of India Cements Ltd., after resigning from Air India. India Cements is the owner of the IPL team Chennai Super Kings, and Dhoni has been its captain since the first IPL season.[11][12] He announced his retirement from Tests on 30 December 2014.[13]
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