Anyone Can Do Captaincy But MS Dhoni Is A True Leader: Ashish Nehra
Credits: AP

Former India bowler Ashish Nehra has lavished praise on the leadership skills of MS Dhoni, calling the former India skipper a ‘true leader’.

Dhoni had made his international debut way back in 2004. It was a debut to forget as he was run out for a duck against Bangladesh. However, the start was not at all the indication of how the coming years were going to be. The boy wonder from Ranchi went on to write one of the most beautiful scripts in the game both as a batsman and captain.

In just his 5th ODI, he scored a blistering 148 against Pakistan and did not look back since then. He established himself as one of India’s premier batsman in ODIs. The most memorable moment of Dhoni’s early part of the career arrived in 2007 when he led a bunch of youngsters to the World T20 title in South Africa.

“There are a few genuine reasons why Dhoni has been a game-changer in this cricketing era. His batting talent was quite obvious from the initial days. The time captain Sourav Ganguly promoted him to bat at number three against Pakistan in the Visakhapatnam ODI in 2005, he slammed a century. Then, he hammered 183 against Sri Lanka in Jaipur within the same year, and had everyone convinced that there was something exceptional about him. He had that uncanny ability to hit the ball out of the park, clean,” he wrote in Outlook India.

MS Dhoni, Ashish Nehra
MS Dhoni has been a game-changer in this era: Ashish Nehra (Credits: AFP)

Nehra further praised Dhoni’s leadership skills for the way he handled a star-studded team at a very early age.

“And when Dhoni took over as India’s Test captain, following Anil Kumble’s retirement in 2008, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh were still in the team. To lead a team of such stalwarts would surely not have been an easy task and that too at just 27. But Dhoni proved worthy of the responsibility given to him. He showed character while leading the team and showed that unwavering spirit, that unique characteristic that gave him his signature epithet—Captain Cool. It also helped that the team was quite settled when he took over, and coach Gary Kirsten helped him too,” said Nehra.

Ashish Nehra, MS Dhoni
MS Dhoni is a true leader: Ashish Nehra (Credits: AFP)

Dhoni was not seen as a captaincy material in his starting days. The reason were obvious. The World Cup-winning skipper had never led a side before becoming the India skipper. However, he proved his distractors wrong in style by becoming the most successful skipper of India.

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Nehra went on hail Dhoni as a true leader, citing the unprecedented triumph in the inaugural World T20.

“Anyone can do captaincy, but Dhoni is a true leader. He proved that in 2007, by leading the team to victory in the ICC Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa. That kind of success can sway others, not him. Remember, he was comple­tely new to captaincy—he was handed the reins when he was nowhere in the picture. And there were big shoes to fill in: Rahul Dravid was captain on India’s previous tour to England. Dhoni as skipper was a huge turning point for Indian cricket as well. He knew how to handle pressure, in his own way. When ­India lost a back-to-back Test series to England, 0-4, and to Australia by the same margin in 2011, after winning the World Cup at home, he didn’t buckle or change as a person,” he wrote.

 

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