Dropping Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid for the tri-series in Australia in 2008:
Dropping these two stalwarts raised a few eye-brows as some thought their presence would have been helpful for a young team in Australian conditions. But Dhoni was confident of his decision. India won the tri-series (which also included Sri-Lanka) by beating Australia in the final.
Initially, it was thought that the inclusion of senior and experienced pros would have been valuable but the decision paid off. Dhoni made some unconventional bowling changes in the entire tournament which got the desired results.