The Test series against England, the Investec Series 2014, was a forgettable outing for the Indians, especially for skipper MS Dhoni. However, what is heartwarming is the fact that not just did he take all that negativity in his stride without uttering a word, he also stumped all his critics and detractors with one simple thing — his cricket. For MS, this has been a tour of mixed emotions, of mixed results. While the Test series itself was nothing short of an embarrassing, lousy defeat at the hands of the hosts England, the One Day International series not just brought some respite, it also gave him the chance to scale a few peaks — some individual, some for the team.
With the authoritative 9-wicket win against England in Birmingham on Tuesday, MS Dhoni became the most successful Indian ODI captain, surpassing Mohammad Azharuddin’s 90 wins just by a single match. This itself summarises his career as a captain, but then, let’s perhaps look at the different aspects to what it has taken MS to convert himself from a regular captain, into ‘Captain Cool’, as he is often referred to.
The head that wears the crown is uneasy!
Bagging the captaincy of any team is a matter of pride. It doesn’t really matter whether it’s the school team, university team, state team or national team. When MS was first handed the crown, little would he have realised that this saying would be oh-so-true. While he’s got his fair share of glories, he’s got a balance in the number of brickbats too. What’s being worse that being under the media and critics glare 24*7? What you do, who you meet and more importantly, how much do you earn — when all of these questions are regularly asked and also answered by the media, life does become difficult. To top it, every action on field is under the scanner.
When strategies work, he’s lauded, but when they don’t, he’s blasted left, right and centre. When he chooses to play safe, it’s termed as unimaginative cricket. When the team wins, the whole team takes the cake, but when it slumps, it’s MS who’s blamed. This tour itself has been a big challenge for him. From verdicts swinging the unfortunate way to matches not yielding the desired results, he’s faced it all. To add to it, players underperforming and underperforming consistently didn’t help either.
Bouncing back with a bang!
No leader can ever achieve greatness without having to go through difficulties. There will be problems, but bouncing back hard is the hallmark of a great leader. Dhoni has had a lot of difficulties, to the extent of the BCCI officials slamming him for certain comments he made. But his trademark has been his silence, his patience and his tolerance. Never has he offended anyone with his statements. He’s always chosen the language of cricket to answer his critics. Other than that, he’s also always stood by his team, through thick and through thin. He even took on the Big Boss Srinivasan to make his point very clear — when it comes to loyalties, his team always comes first. And then what a series this has been for the captain. He’s scored when required, pushed himself down the order to give the youngsters a chance and played the role of a skipper more effectively than perhaps anyone else.
Stats Speak
Some people might just feel I’m praising Dhoni for no rhyme or reason. But then, I do have numbers to support all the statements that I have made so far. He’s the only Indian captain to have bagged two World Cups — the T20 and the ICC limited overs. Other than that, he’s also the most successful Indian captain, as he’s won 91 matches of the 162 he has played, one step ahead of the previous record holder Azharuddin. While the latter took 9 years and 174 matches, Dhoni took only 7 and 162 matches. Also, he’s got the best records against England, winning 17 of the total 25 matches that he’s played against them. He also got the highest number of stumpings of 131, better than Kumar Sangakkara, who’s got 129. He’s 6th on the list of most number of appearances by an ODI captain with 162, with Ponting leading the pack at 230. His batting average as an ODI captain is 58.33, with 6 centuries and 62 stumpings, records that he can be absolutely proud of. As a captain, he’s also won 4 man of the series and 14 man of the match awards.
With these numbers, I rest my case.