Recently during the test match held between India and the rainbow country, South Africa, all the eyes were struck on captain cool aka Mahendra Singh Dhoni. India was on its first tour abroad after its shameful defeat England and Australia. During this match against South Africa, the splendid performance of Virat Kohli tried to create some kind of pressure on South Africa. But as we know, winning a match is not a one man show. The bowler and the fielders also have an important role along with the batsman. But the major role in all these events is played by the center point person, the captain.
According to Dhoni, he is not a great batsman, but rather he is a package who gives customized contribution. He may not be great as a wicket keeper or as a batsman specially in test matches, but his role is multidimensional and due to this, his individual performance hardly matters. What is important is his captainship and his versatility. Though not great but he is definitely a good batsman and wicketkeeper. He might not be technically perfect, but he has performed his duties properly within his limits. His coolness and patience, while leading the team is really appreciable. Basically Dhoni's package comprises of the combination of a batsman, wicket keeper and captain along with various value additions.
When Dhoni first came into limelight in 2005, he was a batsman batting in the first gear. But then he has completely changed his performance. He proved that, although fifth gear enables speed but while climbing the mountains of hurdles, only first gear is required. By accepting and implementing this fact, Dhoni has achieved the biggest success as a captain. He has taken the Indian team on the peak of success in Twenty-Twenty matches, one day matches and test matches. Along with these successes, he has also faced many big defeats. In all these success and failures, the cooperation of Dhoni's teammates should also be taken into consideration. Basically, Dhoni is a leader who listens to his inner voice and moves forward. This tendency of leadership is brought in the Indian team by Virendra Sehwag. He may not score high individually but he definitely has the capacity to increase the score board of the team. Similarly, Rahul Dravid was not a technically perfect wicket keeper but by doing wicket keeping himself he has given a good support and stability to the team. Dhoni has adopted the strategy of Ganguly to encourage the young players and give them opportunity to increase their individual ranking. Thus Ganguly, Sehwag and Dravid have a great contribution in Dhoni's development.
The bookish rules and regulations doesn't have any effect on the success path of Dhoni. He simply plays on his inner intuitions. His innings played on this methodology has gained success as well as failures. The fierce but at the same time cool captain has many times behaved very protectively. Due to this he has not even tried to achieve the possible targets on the pitch abroad. He was also criticized for his debate with the senior players, his inefficiency to communicate in proper words and mistake of following the target until the last over.
In spite of all these controversies, the Honorary Lt. Colonel Mahi has given a new height to the Indian cricket. Besides this, he has also tried to manage the difficult work of forming a new team after the retirement of senior players. But these versatile and forceful players have many limitations while performing their duties. It is said that Sachin was not able to make triple century and Roger Federer was unsuccessful on clay court. But it can not be denied that these failures are visible only because big success were achieved earlier.
Beyond success and failures, Dhoni's biggest contribution is his management and temperament. He has always performed his duties without caring for results. He has the skill of concentrating on the things which are in front of him and under his control. He has the potential to maintain his self control in any adverse situation. Along with self confidence, Dhoni has tremendous confidence on his team mates. His struggle was not very easy and his journey from ordinary to extraordinary person was very tough. His out of the track behavior is proved by his daring to do experiments in complicated situations without loosing his self control. Thus Dhoni has given a gift to all the youngsters through his experiments of management. And this contribution of Dhoni to struggle in unfortunate conditions with limited resources is definitely a boon to Indian youngsters.
Source: Divya Marathi