In my opinion, Indians are never neutral. We love to identify ourselves with teams, religion, caste, parties, sects, actors and the list goes on. Cricket has never been an exclusion. After all the most favorite sport in India, how could we stay neutral and enjoy the game without being biased? Dhoni came into Indian cricket when the cricketers of the 90s were reaching their retirement time. Also, that was the time when Yuvraj and Kaif were already into the system as successful recent additions. Keeping wickets was never a sought after thing in Indian cricket. How many of us love to keep wickets in our gully cricket. Gully cricket to me is a very sacred part of Indian cricket. I would say a POC[ Proof of Concept] of BCCI in large numbers that people love to use.
Dhoni was a very very interesting player to watch out in the squad because of his vibrant batting style and his long hair look when we only had idolized Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly sporting such gentlemanly looks. Unorthodox shots attracted a lot of cricket fans. He was a new sensation. I still remember his explosive batting style. Of course, that also came as a youth package.
Dhoni was a great representation of the Indian middle class, humble beginnings,tier2 cities, and a bag full of struggles. We love to celebrate such players and actors. Its often confused that leadership comes with seniority. But its a myth. Leadership needs a different set of nerves. Sachin was a great example to quit captaincy and to show that he wasn't meant to lead and he was only meant to score runs for himself :) It was an easy win for Dhoni to get captaincy than for Yuvraj. Yuvraj never had that composure even though he was a perfect blend of method and talent. Staying calm or rather Flaunting his composure and having an aggressive game strategy is one thing that Dhoni did in style and very very rare to find.
T20 world cup and 50 over world cup winning didn't make a difference to him as a captain and player. One of the finest qualities Dhoni possessed is to nurture young boys to come to limelight. Many cricketers like Raina, Jadeja who played along with him both in Indian Jersey and CSK's yellow jersey rose to this peak of fame because of Dhoni. Their careers to a great share is a tribute to MS Dhoni. The only time when I felt Dhoni's tactics should go wrong was in IPLs which was again very rare. The kind of adoration that CSK fans and people from Tamil Nadu have on Dhoni is unparalleled and never heard of. I am sure of one thing, people cant connect to Kohli like Dhoni for the reason that Kohli has been elite from Day1, and Kohli cant represents the vast majority of us. Having said everything I had on top of my mind I want to conclude by saying that I am just looking forward to that day when MSD gets back to the team as a coach.
Miss you MSD.
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