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Mahender Singh Dhoni has yet again proved that he’s ‘captain courageous’ who deflects criticism of his leadership by his deeds to silence his detractors. Before setting out for the five-match One-Day International (ODI) series against Sri Lanka, two of his ‘star’ colleagues — Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir — had openly questioned Dhoni’s captaincy, saying that he was lucky enough to have always led a talented bunch, who collectively contributed to make him the most successful Indian captain ever, forgetting the fact that Dhoni’s captaincy skills played vital roles when the chips were down. India’s triumphs in the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa, and in the 2011 ODI World Cup in India, were, no doubt, collective efforts, but Dhoni’s leadership contributed much to the success, and his own performances in crunch situations were the clinchers — the prime example being the World Cup semifinals against Australia in Ahmedabad, when he promoted himself ahead of the in-form, but unwell Yuvraj Singh, to give the knock-put punch to the visitors. With India having won the ODI series in Sri Lanka, Dhoni has yet again proved that he’s a no-nonsense captain, who gets the best out of the younger lot, for the team’s larger good. Ironically, barring a century in four matches, Gambhir could not do much with the willow in Sri Lanka, while Sehwag, too, could not get cracking. Instead, players like Virat Kholi, Manoj Tiwari, Rohit Sharma and Ashok Dhinda delivered. Vice-captain Kohli, too, produced two amazing century knocks, to emerge as the most exciting ODI batsman, with 13 hundreds so far, including five this year, which have come in his last eight innings. Gambhir is sour that his Delhi team-mate Kohli had replaced him as vice-captain at the behest of Dhoni, and he has, therefore, become vocal about Dhoni’s captaincy. But Dhoni prefers not to react to such criticisms, and instead, opts to go for wins to silence his critics. Captaincy is all about making skilful use of the talent available at one’s command, and Dhoni’s had often shown that he’s a master tactician when it comes to springing surprises at his opponents. Often, Dhoni has led from the front. Those who bayed for Dhoni’s blood after the Indian team’s disastrous tours of England and Australia, and then flop outing in the Asia Cup in Bangladesh, perhaps underestimated Dhoni’s ability to bounce back. And that’s what he precisely did with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL-5. Dhoni led defending champions CSK with remarkable poise. At the outset, it had looked that this time around, the two-time champions will not make the last four stage, as CSK could not live up to their reputation till much later in the contest. But he beat all odds to take the team to the challenge round. On the way, he laid low the Sehwag-led Delhi Daredevils, who had proved unbeatable in the league phase, topping the table. But the shrewd captain that he is, Dhoni took his team past many a pretender to the throne, though his team crashed in the title hurdle to Gambhir’s Kolkata Kinght Riders, but not before getting out captain Gambhir for a blob. And the series win in Sri Lanka, ahead of the T20 World Cup later this year, is a warning to Dhoni’s critics that it’s not yet time to write him off as the captain.
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