Mahendra Singh Dhoni has impressed everyone all along the way of his glorious career. Among these, those who were quick-witted caught the scent of the mettle in the dashing player from Ranchi. They became sure that he was ready to take on the challenges even as he was establishing permanency in the Indian team during the early years of the new millennium.
Many of the cricket fans were excited about his hairstyle. It went from a long flowing hair to a crew cut. But he was always faithful to cricket as a captain. He even excelled in cricket as a hitter and stumper. Recently, the cricket authorities in India brought back the most famous cricketer from the East Zone in nearly two decades. They appointed him as a mentor to the Indian team for the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup. This decision of the BCCI perplexed and confused everyone, especially Ajay Jadeja. He was confused about the BCCI bringing Dhoni into the scheme of things for the global event. The event would take place in October-November.
The selection committee included Ranjib Biswal, Venkatapathy Raju, Bhupinder Singh, Dilip Vengsarkar along with Sanjay Jagdale (the former national selector from the Central Zone- Indore). He was also a former BCCI secretary. He, along with the others had named Dhoni as captain for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in 2007. Jagdale believes that Dhoni has the ability, achievements, and qualities to contribute to the cricket team for an important multi-team event in the Emirates.
According to Jagdale, Dhoni has clarity of thought and immense confidence in the decision he takes. He said, “He is cool and reads the game very well, the situations, the opposition, and the conditions. Especially in Twenty20. I will never forget the 2007 World Cup in South Africa. I was in London as the selector for the series against England. We picked a new team with Dhoni as captain.”
In 2007, when Jagdale told Dhoni that it was a young and new team, the reaction from Dhoni stunned him. Recalling the short conversation he had with him, Jagdale said, “The first time he is named captain, and he said: Sir, hum World Cup jeet ke ayenge (We will return with the World Cup). I can never forget these words from him. He was not casual at all, he looked very confident about what he said. And India won the World Cup.”
Jagdale does not know the specifics of the role Dhoni will play during the Twenty20 World Cup in UAE. But he knows one thing for sure. It is that Dhoni has an excellent rapport with Virat Kohli. He will definitely add something to the team with his knowledge and experience. He signed off saying that Dhoni was an excellent game-reader and his presence would be very useful to the team.
