Former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has gone back in time to reveal the reason behind his selection as the Indian skipper in the year of 2007. The boy from Ranchi was just an ordinary guy among heavyweights like Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid until he was honoured with the prestigious role of being the Indian captain.
The power-hitting batsman took up the role with courage and as they say ‘the rest is history’. However, according to the man himself, his excellent match awareness and his capability to deal with the high amount of pressure with utmost coolness worked in his favour.
When asked about the same by The Print, the inventor of the helicopter shot replied:
“That is again a very difficult one because a lot of senior players would have supported me. I was not part of the conversation when I was made captain of the team. I feel that looking at everything, maybe it was the honesty that I had and my ability to read the game.”
“Reading the game is very important, and even though I was one of the youngest in the team at that point of time – when asked about my views by a senior player – I was not afraid or hesitant to share my feelings about the game. It probably also had to do with the fact that I was quite good with the other team members in the squad at that point of time.” added Dhoni who did not hesitate in picking up the monumental responsibility on his shoulders.
Dhoni was just 26 years old when he stepped forward to put on the captain’s armband. Though the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag were hefty competitions for him, the middle order batsman won the race for showing some perfect traits which were required to become a shrewd leader. It is strongly believed that Sachin Tendulkar had a major role to play in convincing the selectors about Dhoni.
