3. India tour of Australia in 2011/12
As an Indian captain, MS Dhoni had a golden run till the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. Since then, he faced some tough journeys as an Indian captain a few times. One of those was India’s tour of Australia 2011/12.
After India faced a whitewash (4-0) in the Test series and drew the T20I series (1-1) against the hosts Australia, they made a good start in the ODI tri-series, where Sri Lanka also participated. However, this time, the Indian team faced a massive controversy where the media reported a rift between the captain and senior players.
At that time, Dhoni felt some fitness and fielding issues on three senior players – Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, and Gautam Gambhir. Dhoni decided to start the rotation policy for them and also started that policy in that ODI tri-series.
But Dhoni faced heavy criticism from the media and the former cricketers. As per media, the senior players also didn’t agree with that policy due to getting dropped despite maintaining forms.
Soon, Dhoni closed that policy in the same series as he utilized all those senior players in every game in the later part.