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'MS Dhoni is someone...', Sachin Tendulkar on why he recommended MSD's name for India captaincy, READ big statement ahead of IPL 2023 Mini Auction

Here's the story of how MS Dhoni became the captain of Team India as narrated by Sachin Tendulkat who himself played a big role in this massive development in Indian cricket  

'MS Dhoni is someone...', Sachin Tendulkar on why he recommended MSD's name for India captaincy, READ big statement ahead of IPL 2023 Mini Auction Source: Twitter

When MS Dhoni retired from international cricket in August of 2022, the fans felt that there would be no one like him for India ever. He retired as a legend, who is missed till date by the fans, especially when India does not do well in the ICC tournaments. Dhoni has become synonymous with calmness, smartness and humbleness. He carried his small town self quite superbly on the pitch whenever he led India on the cricket ground. But how many of you know about the story of Dhoni becoming the captain of Team India. It happened in the year 2007, when Dhoni was all of 26 years of age. After India's sorry attempt at 2007 ODI World Cup where they got knocked out in just the first round, BCCI was looking for replacement of Rahul Dravid. The board had reached out to Sachin Tendulkar to lead the Men In Blue again. But he refused. Not before recommending a new name.

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Sachin was quite impressed with Dhoni. MSD was quite young and very new to the team. But by then, he had spent a lot of time with him in the slips.  Sachin was very impressed with the insights of Dhoni on the game. He used to ask for his feedback and Dhoni would say the right things. That is why Sachin felt it was only right that Dhoni, even at such a young age, led India on the field.

"This was in England when I was offered captaincy. I said we have a very good leader in the team who was still a junior, and he is someone you should look at closely. I have had a lot of conversations with him, more so on the field where I would be fielding at first slip and asked him, what do you think? Though Rahul was the captain but I would ask him and the feedback I received was very balanced, calm, yet very much matured," Tendulkar said.

Tendulkar said that he saw great qualities of a captain in Dhoni. 

"Good captaincy is about being a step ahead of opposition. If one is smart enough to do that, like we say, josh se nahi, hosh se khelo (play sensibly). It doesn't happen instantly, you won't get 10 wickets in 10 balls. You have to plan it. At the end of the day, the scoreboard matters. And I saw those qualities in him. Hence, I recommended his name," the former India batter further said.