Here are 5 Times Dhoni proved that he is Captain Cool:

1) 2007 World Cup: 

India’s infamous victory in the inaugural edition of the T-20 World Cup in 2007 is a story for the ages. In the final against Pakistan, India had posted 157 runs in their first innings, but Misbah-ul-Haq looked set to take the game away from the men in blue.

Dhoni gave the ball to relatively inexperienced medium pacer Joginder Sharma in the final over against Misbah-ul-Haq. And sure enough, Joginder Sharma stood up for India, taking the vital wicket of Misbah in the second ball of the over and leading India to a memorable victory.

2) 2011 World Cup Final: 

India lost the crucial wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag early on while chasing a challenging total of 275 runs against Sri Lanka. Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli managed to keep the innings in check for a while, but in a surprise move, Dhoni decided to push himself up the order in place of Yuvraj Singh after the dismissal of Kohli. At the time, it looked like a poor decision as the Indian captain had struggled for form in the World Cup and Yuvraj Singh was having a stellar tournament with the bat.

However, Dhoni’s tactics paid off as the cool-headed Indian captain led the team to their first ODI World Cup victory in 28 years with a six.

3) Promoting Rohit Sharma as an opener: 

Rohit Sharma was originally a middle-order batter in the shorter format of the game. However, the talented batter had found little success playing lower down the order.

MSD decided to give Rohit a different role in the Indian set-up ahead of the 2013 Champions Trophy. Rohit was promoted as India’s opening batsman and the rest is history. The Mumbai-born batsman went on to become the fastest to reach 6,000 runs opening the innings and has been a key part of the Indian set-up ever since.

4) Using Ishant in the Champions Trophy: 

A defining characteristic of Dhoni’s cricketing career has been the faith he has shown in his players over the years.In a crucial final of the 2013 Champions Trophy, which was reduced to 20 overs due to rain, Dhoni decided to give the ball to Ishant Sharma against the run of play.

Up to that point, Ishant had been expensive and Ravi Bopara was in destructive form. But in the 18th over of the match, Ishant took the crucial wickets of Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan in successive deliveries to turn the match in India’s favour.

5) 2016 T-20 World Cup: 

India could not win the 2016 T-20 World Cup which later became MS Dhoni’s last big championship as India’s captain. However, in a match against Bangladesh, Captain Cool showcased the utmost leadership skills when he lead his team to a one run victory.

Updated: 07 Jul 2023, 09:56 AM IST