He came, He pLayED, He conquered..

I very well remember those days when a wicketkeeper was more like a liability for Indian cricket team. While teams like Srilanka and Australia could boast of Sangakara and Gilchrist as their wicketkeeper, India could never find a keeper who could bat even with half reliability as these giants. Then came MSD, with a reputation of hard hitting batsman from Jharkhand and since then, India have never looked back. However his debut series against Bangladesh could not turn out fruitful for him but he did not take long to impress one and all, thanks to those magnificent match winning innings of 148(against Pakistan) and 183 (against Srilanka). He did not have a very elegant bat swing or effective technique but his power was more than sufficient to destroy some of the finest bowling line ups. All this from a wicketkeeper- India could not have expected more. But for everyone’s delight, best of MSD was yet to come. He kept producing those match winning knocks. Who would forget his finishing streaks with Yuvi during Pakistan series? Not just this, this hard hitting Ranchi boy had a cool , intelligent and thinking head over those powerful shoulders, often evident in his statements during post match presentations. India had found its own combination of calmness of Sanga and destructive batting of Gilchrist. He was being seen as future captain; however it seemed that he might have to wait for it, with team doing well under Rahul and likes of Sehwag and Yuvi ahead of him for captain’s position. But all the equations changed after India’s early exit in 2007 world cup, followed by Rahul’s unexpected resignation as captain after England tour. First ever T20 world cup was on corner, with the famous trio opting out from it. Then came one of the most surprising decision in world cricket, MSD was made captain of Indian cricket team. And boy o boy, this turned out to be perhaps the decision of that decade. He led India to victory in inaugural edition of T20 world championship and thus began the glory days of MSD and team India. In his very first tournament as captain, Dhoni showed that he was a special captain. Often his achievements have been termed as gifts of his luck but was it just luck? Not really! I would like to recall the league match against Pakistan in T20 world cup. Match was initially a tie and was to be decided by bowl out. Well, India won the bowl out and it was not just luck, it was well framed strategy of bowling slow bowlers (Robin Uthappa, Bhajji and Viru) in bowl out as they had better control while Pakistan opted for fast bowlers. And we all remember how many we hit and how many they missed. Not just this, MSD made his bowlers practice for bowl out during net sessions. Was it luck? No, it was his ability to visualize. Bowling Joginder Sharma in final over during the final was not a bad choice. Bhajji was hit for 2-3 sixes in his previous over and Joginder had bowled an economical one. Hence Joginder was the obvious choice. And Dhoni’s field positions were immaculate, else who would have placed Sreesanth to that unorthodox fine leg position during that final over, thus made him claim that catch of Misbah. So every now and then Dhoni has been deprived of the credit he deserves by giving it to his luck. But people never saw that he had made his own luck. His dream beginning as captain was followed by many other victories. He lead both his teams: Team India and CSK to bag many marvelous. India became number one in tests, Dhoni became number one as batsman. However with time, there were many changes to his initial power hitting style of batsman and now he was cautious during initial phase of his arrival on crease and exploded towards the end of innings.

                People often say Ganguly was the best captain of Indian team and Dhoni is the captain of best Indian team. However I differ on this. No doubt Ganguly was a superb captain and he was the one who initialized the resurgence of Indian cricket team but if you really look at players who played under him, you would find he led a better team. Under Saurav, Dravid was the best in the world,  Sachin was in his prime form, Kumble and Bhajji formed the most potent spin duo in the world, Zaheer was young and energetic, Viru was more reliable. Undoubtedly, Dada led a more powerful bowling line up. However Dhoni had to deal with problems of ageing fast bowlers, unavailability of lethal spin bowlers, thanks to Bhajji’s drop in the form and Anil’s retirement. Infact Dravid also was not at his best; however he discovered back his magic towards the end of the career. So undoubtedly, Ganguly was blessed with a better team. 
But keeping the critics aside, Dhoni kept touching heights. Indian team now had a leader, who was innovative, who was unorthordox yet very effective. All these qualities made him earn respect from opponents, ofcourse earning him millions of bucks alongside. Two world cup titles, two IPL titles, one CLt20 titles, CB series victory and many more trophies tell the success story of Dhoni-the captain. However clean sweeps against  England and Australia have raised a question mark on his creditability as captain but needless to say this was collective failure of the team and he alone cannot be blamed. However Dhoni has always loved challenges in his career and the day is not far away when he would wash away whatever doubts are put on him. Today, on his birthday, I pray to God to bless him with much more success, fitness and wisdom. MSD, it’s been a wonderful experience to witness you on cricket field! I am sure you have a lot more in store for us. Amen!