Dhoni: an epitome of Success

It was 2005, I was in my 5th standard, one day when I returned from my school my father told me that there’s this long haired wicket keeper who has scored 148 against Pakistan. And , during those days Indian wicketkeeper hitting 100 was something new, little did I realise that entry of this guy would change Indian cricket forever.

As a captain,he won 2007 t20 worldcup, 2011 worldcup, 2013 champions trophy and many more but for me more than all these wins the thing that defined him was his attitude with which he played for India. He showed us that a guy from a small town can achieve everything that can ever be achieved. Like in the video where in he announced his retirement, he truly lived in the moment. He knew when to sieze the opportunity and when not to.
Like in the 2011 worldcup final, he knew that match was his but the worldcup was Sachin’s. Whenever we see the last moments of 2011 worldcup we don’t see Dhoni around it , we see the whole team. Through all his finishes, he made us believe match isn’t finished until it’s really finished. One more thing , that defined him was , he played with the minds of opposition like When India were on the verge of beating Australia at MCG in 2008, Dhoni told his players not to go overboard while celebrating because that would have made Australia feel that India’s win was a fluke.

Just like that, just with a press release he announced his retirement from test cricket in 2014 ,no fuzz, no farewell , mid way through the series in Australia he announced his retirement . He made sure Virat Kohli got one more match to lead it in down under . I haven’t seen selfless cricker like him ever, he could have batted at 4 and could have scored tons and tons of runs but he chose to take responsibility by batting down the under and finishing games for India. Though, he batted at 6 all his career he scored more than 10k. When the seniors of the team retired , he made sure the transformation was smooth and he made sure he made a team which were full of potential match winners. I could go on and on about him and his achievements.

15 August 2020, again just like that , just through an Instagram post he announced his retirement from international cricket. we knew this retirement was coming , but there are some things that hit you the most you when they happen. As Virat Kohli once rightly said ,”Whenever , I hear the word captain I remember Dhoni”. Captain , you made my childhood and adulthood awesome. Thank you for everything.