How did MSD get the job?!

[Cricketman]

How did MS Dhoni get the job of captaining India in the first place?

If I recall correctly, Rahul Dravid stepped down from the mantle after the tour of England. The T20 WC followed soon after, in which MS Dhoni was captain.

But how in the world did a guy like MS get the job? He was still pretty much a rookie in Indian cricket standards, and there were much more experienced players in the team with him - Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, and Harbhajan Singh are examples. How was MS picked? He didn't have any sort of VC position either.

It was obvious that it was a left field, risky pick, but just look at how it has paid of for the country now.

 

[Dutch]

How did MS Dhoni get the job of captaining India in the first place?

If I recall correctly, Rahul Dravid stepped down from the mantle after the tour of England. The T20 WC followed soon after, in which MS Dhoni was captain.

But how in the world did a guy like MS get the job? He was still pretty much a rookie in Indian cricket standards, and there were much more experienced players in the team with him - Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, and Harbhajan Singh are examples. How was MS picked? He didn't have any sort of VC position either.

It was obvious that it was a left field, risky pick, but just look at how it has paid of for the country now.

A bit like Pieterson really! He had as far as I am aware no captaincy expereince at all. In hindsight maybe a risky choice but I was sad to see him go. Anyway this is about Dhoni and not Pieterson but it does show that it is not all just about experience.

 

[SaiSrini]

Dhoni had the backing of the senior players, especially one Mr. Sachin Tendulkar. Dhoni had displayed all the positive traits of being a good captain. So even though he didnt have much experience doing it before, he got it due to his traits and the backing from the players.

Now it has turned out to be a great one for India. Dhoni will most probably surpass Saurav Ganguly to become the most successful Indian captain ever.

 

[shravi]

Yep, Sachin was the one that recommended him. He had noticed that Dhoni was one of the only ones in the team that maintained a good/friendly relationship with everyone, or was the best at doing so.

 

[Spinksy]

How did MS Dhoni get the job of captaining India in the first place?

If I recall correctly, Rahul Dravid stepped down from the mantle after the tour of England. The T20 WC followed soon after, in which MS Dhoni was captain.

But how in the world did a guy like MS get the job? He was still pretty much a rookie in Indian cricket standards, and there were much more experienced players in the team with him - Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, and Harbhajan Singh are examples. How was MS picked? He didn't have any sort of VC position either.

It was obvious that it was a left field, risky pick, but just look at how it has paid of for the country now.

Just because people like Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh didn't get selected as the next captain for the Indian team, doesn't mean M.S Dhoni was a bad selection. Virender Sehwag, although a batsman of high caliber wasn't the right choice IMO. He doesn't even give signs of a potential leader. And Harbhajan, he's possible the worst choice - He gets into flaming battles with the opposition, insults people on and off the field and he's hardly a good leader. There would be major concern, not to mention uproar if he was India's next captain. Yuvraj is similar, just not on a grand scale like Harbhajan. Poor choice there. Tendulkar's a godly batsman, but not only would the captaincy role potentially stress him and therefore affect his batting, but he's well past his time IMO, there isn't any point to him starting to captain now. M.S Dhoni on the other hand seems a likely choice, he's friendly with all team mates so the relationship he has with his team is a bonus because they'll more than likely listen to him. He's cool, calm and collected which pretty much screams leader, he's a wicketkeeper as well so that helps as he'll easily be able to see the majority of the field and the players placements. I really could rave all day about the little things that would and have made MS Dhoni the best choice for Indian Captain but I'm sure you get the point now.

 

[MaD]

He's doing exceptional as a captain, it was a risk that payed off

 

[Dutch]

Just because people like Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh didn't get selected as the next captain for the Indian team, doesn't mean M.S Dhoni was a bad selection. Virender Sehwag, although a batsman of high caliber was the right choice IMO. He doesn't even give signs of a potential leader. And Harbhajan, he's possible the worst choice - He gets into flaming battles with the opposition, insults people on and off the field and he's hardly a good leader. There would be major concern, not to mention uproar if he was India's next captain. Yuvraj is similar, just not on a grand scale like Harbhajan. Poor choice there. Tendulkar's a godly batsman, but not only would the captaincy role potentially stress him and therefore affect his batting, but he's well past his time IMO, there isn't any point to him starting to captain now. M.S Dhoni on the other hand seems a likely choice, he's friendly with all team mates so the relationship he has with his team is a bonus because they'll more than likely listen to him. He's cool, calm and collected which pretty much screams leader, he's a wicketkeeper as well so that helps as he'll easily be able to see the majority of the field and the players placements. I really could rave all day about the little things that would and have made MS Dhoni the best choice for Indian Captain but I'm sure you get the point now.

I dont think he was questioning the decision but rather how the decision became to be made, which you have pointed out some of them in your post.

 

[Spinksy]

I dont think he was questioning the decision but rather how the decision became to be made, which you have pointed out some of them in your post.

Yes, but he was stating that there were better candidates out there such as Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh. He was basing it on experience rather than potential though so I just pointed out the obvious.

 

[Howsie]

Dhoni had the backing of the senior players, especially one Mr. Sachin Tendulkar. Dhoni had displayed all the positive traits of being a good captain. So even though he didnt have much experience doing it before, he got it due to his traits and the backing from the players.

Now it has turned out to be a great one for India. Dhoni will most probably surpass Saurav Ganguly to become the most successful Indian captain ever.

That's it, Tendulkar talked to the selectors and said the Dhoni would make a very good captain. Obviously he'd shown something in the three or so year's he'd been playing for India which showed he'd be able to handle the job. There's a long list of captains in the history of cricket that have done a very good job captaining their national team even after getting the job fairly early in their international career.

 

[Cricketman]

I never said Bhaj/Yuvraj were better captaincy options. Hell, the day Harbhajan gets the job you'll see me supporting Sri Lanka till he gets fired. They were more experienced candidates, who were likely to get a role ahead of someone like Dhoni, who came out of nowhere.

 

[sohum]

Kinda like the Graeme Smith pick, huh?

Other things to consider are that India's captains in the recent past have usually been batsmen--Dravid, Ganguly, Tendulkar, Azharuddin, etc. Dhoni's selection from the wicket-keeper position was even more interesting.

What it came down to, however, was the T20 world cup. Since India was pushing for a young team, all the "prior experience" fellows were out of the picture. Looking at our line-up for T20 2007, the options in the lineup were, as you suggested, Yuvi, Sehwag and Bhajji. All of these contenders, however, were pretty established players in the senior team. Of the really young players, Dhoni was the only one in the middle (others being Gambhir, Rohit Sharma and our slew of bowlers). Being that he was a wicketkeeper, they probably went with him since India has a history of batsmen deteriorating after becoming captain. Since there were so many other specialist batsmen before Dhoni, that didn't become as much of an issue.

All that said, if India had been knocked out of the T20 world cup in 2007 early, I doubt we'd see Dhoni at the helm now.

 

[Chetan0304]

Remember the T20 cup BCCI surprisingly announced the long brown haired Dhoni as captain.


I remember guys say " it's a gamble,we wont win with all this new faces"


..and look where the master is :hpraise:hpraise

 

[SciD]

Yuvraj was set to be captain since Sachin had refused it. But Sachin wanted Dhoni to lead India in shorter version. Rest is history.

Basically MSD can thank Sachin all his life.

 

[Precambrian]

More like being a candidate by exception than choice.

Once Dravid stepped down, the captaincy contenders were :

1. Sachin Tendulkar - It was to him it was offered, but Tendulkar turned it down and advised Dhoni's name

2. Harbhajan Singh - Being the 2nd most experienced guy, he'd have been considered but in India captaincy rarely goes to a bowler. It also didn't help Harbhajan was struggling in ODIs during that time.

3. Yuvraj Singh - :laugh Personification of what a captain shouldn't be... well atleast Indian captain.

4. Virendar Sehwag - Blunt and talks before thinking.

Dhoni had all the good qualities like brilliant batsmanship, and reasonably good glovework to back it up. So it went to him.

Also remember ODI captaincy only went to him, test captaincy was given to Kumble which was a brilliant move and allowed Dhoni to gradually ease into captaincy, a thing which was not afforded to the previous guys.

And it's not the first time India has seen such "surprise" captains, MAK Pataudi was made captain at the ripe young age of 21, so was Sachin Tendulkar. Well, Sachin at least was not ready for the job then and it showed.

 

[Cricketman]

I always thought that Sehwag was a very good captain.