During an Infosys event, India legend Sachin Tendulkar revealed why he chose MS Dhoni as India’s skipper in all three formats.
Sachin himself has captained India and the team did well under his leadership, Sachin also got some milestones during that time.
Although Sachin is now retired from cricket, he continues to remain the highest run-scorer for India.
He has 34,357 runs in ODIs, T20Is, and Tests for India.
While MS Dhoni is also not a part of the Indian setup any longer, India does not have a skipper of his caliber today.
Although India is a formidable force in world cricket today, they still need a player like MS Dhoni.
Tendulkar’s reason for giving Dhoni the leadership of India
MS Dhoni first became the skipper of India in the year 2007 when the team still had big names like Tendulkar, Dravid, Virendra Sehwag, and Sourav Ganguly in their ranks.
But, before the start of the inaugural T20 World Cup, the seniors decided to give the juniors a chance.
The BCCI asked Tendulkar in 2007 about his choice of captain, he straightaway took Dhoni’s name.
Says Tendulkar,
This was in England when I was offered captaincy. I said we have a very good leader in the team who was still a junior, and he is someone you should look at closely. I have had a lot of conversations with him, more so on the field where I would field at first slip and ask him, what do you think? Though Rahul was the captain, I would ask him (Dhoni) and the feedback I received was very balanced, calm, yet very much matured.
Then in 2008, Dhoni was given the Test captaincy, and the big names during that time were Virendra Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, and Zaheer Khan.
Tendulkar also played under the leadership of MS Dhoni when the team won the 2011 World Cup. Dhoni was still the skipper in 2013 when Tendulkar bid adieu from Test cricket.
Adds Tendulkar,
Good captaincy is about being a step ahead of the opposition. If one is smart enough to do that, as we say, josh se nahi, hosh se khelo (play sensibly). It doesn’t happen instantly, you won’t get 10 wickets in 10 balls. You have to plan it. At the end of the day, the scoreboard matters. And I saw those qualities in him. Hence, I recommended his name.
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