5 Reasons MS Dhoni was India's Best Captain ever

Comparison is inevitable!

No matter who you are, or what you do! At some stage in your life, whether your parents judge you on your big brother’s better and discernible career decisions, or berate you for the better performance of same-age guy from your friendly neighbourhood, you must have faced this question, or discrimination to be precise.

So why should our own Mahendra Singh Dhoni be any different! Nobody, not even the most famous and successful guy from his field, could escape this dreaded “Comparison” pit. But can you come to a precise conclusion, leaving aside your own personal obsession? That’s hard. But we can try, we can try to be as close to the real picture as possible. It’s not easy, for Indian cricket is rich in history, and so are its pages, stocked with glorifying moments when captains led from the front and did the absolutely unthinkable. But we will still try! Here are 5 reasons why MS Dhoni may be the best-ever captain in India’s cricketing history.

Longevity!

Albert Einstein may have tramped Time as “Illusion”, but in a world confined by the law of physics, this is the most accurate parameter to measure everything happening on this planet! We, by no means, are undermining what Kapil Dev did with his team in 1983. That was a different time altogether when India was the underdog. That’s why what he and troops managed to achieve in that summer in 1983 can easily be termed as the watershed moment in Indian cricket.

But to some extent, Indian cricket was in a similar state in 2007. The fans were turning their backs on this sport after the horrendous world cup in West Indies, but Dhoni’s captaincy came as a breath of fresh air and he launched himself as captain in the inaugural 2007 T20 World Cup, and as they say, the rest is the history.

Kapil Dev’s team may have won the World Cup in England, but it failed to build on that performance. In fact, the West Indies toured India soon after the world cup and whitewashed the host in both the Test (0-3) and ODI (0-5) series. While Dhoni’s teams were relentless. He won everything on offer, with the World Cup in 2011 being the tipping point. Dhoni also guided India to the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013.

Decision making!

Who in the world would have thought that Dhoni would give Joginder Sharma the final over in the 2007 T20 World Cup, and that too against the red-hot Misbah-ul-Haq? Not me, or any ardent cricket fan. In fact, the commentators were befuddled, as was every Indian fan. And when Misbah hit Sharma for a six on the 5th ball, it looked a lost cause, but Dhoni said something to Sharma, and he held on. And the rest is history!

That game, or instance to be precise, was one of many strange decisions, hard to fathom for even the most intelligent cricket experts, that defined him, and brought huge success to India, and helped him to stand head and shoulders above in the cricket world when he was in his prime, both as a captain and batsman.