People talk about the leadership traits of Dhoni, obviously the success he has had and the media & man management he has done over the last couple of years may be a pure example of his leadership. Most of the compliments that he has had ever since the Saturday night he helped the nation lift the world cup, unfortunately don’t reflect the astute thinking and shrewdness in his cricket.
Most of the times during the WC2011 he did the unexpected. When Ashwin had been the out right performer over the last couple of seasons in the domestic circuit, he made him sit on the bench for quite a number of matches. When the situation demanded he unveiled his spinning weapon, only when needed. The must win match against Windies where India wanted to win and take a nice position & in the quarters.
The moment Ashwin pitched in with wickets he halted his flow by not selecting him for the semis and the finals, people may think that this may have been a political decision, but I view this thing as a decision of smartness.
Games are increasingly becoming targets for players and even oppositions target a few rock stars in your team. I have seen this in soccer games that a star player in the opposition team being circled by 4 players by a home team to negate his influence scoring a goal.
Due to the increasing efficacy of media these days, it is inevitable that a good player may get targeted during a match. With tapes being available of matches, the bowlers are the ones to be impacted the most. In early days of cricket, there were no way a batsman could see a bowler in action in the television sets and try to observe the secret weapons of the bowler except during a match.
Nowadays, even general public knows about the weapons in the armory of bowlers and how each one is bowled. With commentators giving tips & slow motion replays, the bowlers literally suffer a lot due to these.
Also promoting himself up the batting order on the day, people say that its a leadership trait or shouldering responsibility, I would say that even that is a move of conviction.
Common sense states that key players in the Indian Team were Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh after Sachin & Sehwag. Once Sachin, Sehwag & Kohli were out, the srilankan team went into a comfort zone not trying to Target the Indian captain. This is the masterstroke, he can score when he wants to. I have always believed in this. People might have written him off considering the recent outings he has had.. But don't forget the magnificent 189* he scored was against SL during an important match.
SM Gavaskar had always been saying that he should promote himself up the order, but he did when the nation needed the most..
