MS Dhoni is revered by fans for leading India to three ICC white-ball titles and also taking Team India to the No 1 ranking in Test cricket. In 2009, India became the No 1 Test team for the first time under Dhoni’s captaincy.
India also won the 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 ODI World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy with Dhoni as the captain.
However, it is just not the trophies that make Dhoni the legend he is. It’s also his unconventional decisions, that took everyone including the opponents and fans by surprise.
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We take a look at five of the most daring and surprising decisions taken by Dhoni while captaining India.
Joginder Sharma bowling the last over in 2007 T20 World Cup final
Joginder Sharma was asked to bowl the final over in the 2007 T20 World Cup final against Pakistan with 13 more needed. Harbhajan Singh had an over left but Dhoni trusted the inexperienced Joginder to complete the job and the pacer dismissed Misbah-ul-Haq on the third ball of the over to guide India to the world title.
Using spinners in death overs during 2013 Champions Trophy final
The 2013 Champions Trophy final became a 20-over contest due to rain. India made 129/7 batting first but at 79/5 after 15 overs they were helped by England who used pacers to bowl the next four overs and just one over of spin, giving away 50 runs.
Dhoni in contrast relied on his spinners to choke the English batters and secure a famous five-run win. R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Suresh Raina together bowled four out of the last five overs with one going to Ishant Sharma. Unlike England, Ishant was the only pacer to complete his four-over quota as India relied on spinners. Raina bowled three overs in the final.
The biggest turning point however came in the 18th over when an unexpected over from Ishant led to the dismissal of both set batters — Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara — breaking the back of England’s batting.
Asking Sourav Ganguly to captain in his last Test
Dhoni was a new captain at that time but it was Sourav Ganguly’s last Test at Nagpur against Australia in 2008. Towards the end of the game, Dhoni asked his former skipper to captain India again for the final few overs as the home team inched towards a victory.
“As the match came to a close, MS Dhoni in a surprise gesture asked me to lead. I had rejected his offer earlier in the day, but could not refuse a second time. Ironically, my captaincy career had begun exactly eight years ago on this very day,” Ganguly wrote in his book titled ‘A Century is Not Enough’.
Coming out to bat ahead of Yuvraj Singh in 2011 World Cup final
Yuvraj Singh was India’s best player in the 2011 World Cup but in the final Dhoni decided to promote himself ahead of the left-hander. The decision was made with Muttiah Muralitharan in mind. The off-spinner had a stronger match-up against Yuvraj. In such a case, Dhoni came ahead of Yuvraj and destroyed Sri Lanka’s hopes as he hit 91 not out off 79 to guide India to their second ODI World Cup trophy.
Sudden retirement from Tests in 2014
Dhoni retired from Test cricket midway through the tour of Australia in 2014-15. On 30 December 2014, Dhoni retired from the longer format after India drew the Boxing Day Test at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. India were already 2-0 down in the series and Dhoni knew it was time to hand over the reins to a younger player.
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