Five Reasons Why MS Dhoni Has Many Haters in his Own Country in India

MS Dhoni is arguably the best skipper and the finisher to have the represented the Indian National Cricket Team. He has won three ICC trophies – 2007 World T20, ICC World Cup 2011, and ICC Champions Trophy 2013, the best by any Indian captain.

Ever since he made his debut in 2004, he didn’t had to look back. He sealed his berth with his clean hitting and street-smart wicket-keeping skills. Apart from his batting skills, Dhoni has won the most number of Tests and ODI matches among the Indian skipper.

Despite a strong CV, MS Dhoni has a lot of criticisers throughout the country. From his poor record in Test in overseas conditions to influencing the selectors, which have not gone well with the Indian fans; thus, attracting a lot of haters.

Here are some of the reasons why MS Dhoni has a lot of haters in India:

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Exclusion of senior cricketers

India had a disastrous time in the 2007 ICC World Cup. Soon after their campaign, Rahul Dravid stepped down from the captaincy as MS Dhoni took over the reins. The management dropped all the senior cricketers including Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly barring Sachin Tendulkar.

The wave of the IPL brought new cricketers in the ranks, which brought a lot of exuberant and passion in the Indian team. Besides, despite a successful campaign in the 2011 World Cup at home, the senior cricketers including Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, and Yuvraj Singh got very few chances.

There is a wide-ranging view that MS Dhoni influenced the selectors not to include the ageing cricketers in the 2015 World Cup which didn’t go down well with the fans of those cricketers.

Failure as an overseas Test captain

MS Dhoni took over the reins of the Test team as the selectors pinned all their hopes on the young man after his recent success with the limited overs team. The Jharkhand-born cricketer repaid the trust soon taking his side to the no 1 Test ranking with consecutive home series win.

However, the tides turn when India started touring abroad. India failed to win any overseas series from 2011 onwards, having lost massively to Australia and England 4-0, and also failing to win against South Africa and New Zealand on their home. In Dhoni’s last series against Australia which India again lost, there were talks about changing the Test skipper.

But MS Dhoni soon after announced his retirement from Test cricket, midway through the series, thus handing over the baton to Virat Kohli.

MS Dhoni’s fading finishing abilities

MS Dhoni is arguably the best finished India have ever had. He has won India many games thus earning the tag of the no one finisher. The most illustrious among all was the 2011 ICC World Cup final when he struck a six over the long on fielder to beat Sri Lanka and win the coveted trophy after 28 long years.

On the contrary, there have been many occasions where Dhoni has failed to stand up to the expectations. Moreover, with his age, his aggressive style of batting has also taken a sharp dip. In 2018, his strike rate was below par, and he managed to score only one fifty throughout the year.

As a result, he has come under sharp criticisms from the fans for his sluggish nature of batting.

Biasness towards Chennai Super Kings players

MS Dhoni has been leading the Chennai Super Kings since the inaugural edition of the IPL in 2008. The tournament has produced innumerable cricketers who have gone on to represent India and do well consistently.

During the emergence of IPL as a young cricketer-producing machine, Dhoni was the leader of the Indian team. There were speculations that Dhoni had a biasness towards Chennai players while picking the India squad over other talented cricketers in the country. This period saw many cricketers from Chennai making their international debut.

This drew widespread criticism from the length and breadth of the country; thus, attracting a lot of haters.

Promoting himself over Yuvraj Singh in World Cup final

MS Dhoni played the masterstroke by pushing himself in the batting order in the 2011 ICC World Cup final against Sri Lanka. He shared a 109-run partnership with Gautam Gambhir to win it for India after 28 years.

‘Captain Cool’, as he is known as showed immense maturity to steal the show from the Lankans with an unbeaten 91-run knock and a finish with a classical six over long on. However, Yuvraj Singh did a great job for India batting at five for India and also earned the man of the series award. And Dhoni promoting himself ahead of Yuvraj didn’t go well with the fans of the all-rounder who came down hard on the then skipper.

Despite having a lot of haters, MS Dhoni is still one of the loved cricketers in the country and across the world, and his contributions to India cricket can never be reduced.