5 MS Dhoni traits that inspire us the most

4. Ability to handle adversities:

Captaining the Indian team isn’t one of the easiest jobs and doing that across formats makes it even tougher. Even if he hasn’t expressed the level of stress he has to manage, the graying hair certainly has.  He led the Indian team in Tests following Anil Kumble’s retirement in 2008 to the point he himself hung his gloves in 2014. Has been at the helm of the ODI and T20I teams since 2004 and 2006 and looks fit enough to play the 2019 World Cup.

Dhoni’s game wasn’t suited the best for Test cricket which is also the most challenging format. He found it difficult yet played 90 Test matches and could have easily played 100 maybe not as the captain but definitely as a player. But he called it a day when it appeared to him that the team he was building is capable enough to work around even without his support and that a young leader in Virat Kohli was ready and eager to wear the captain’s cap and take the team ahead.

The journey in ODI and T20 cricket hasn’t been the smoothest. He hasn’t had the resources in the bowling department good enough to execute the winning plan at his disposal and same was the problem when India lost a series of Tests overseas. No captain apart from MS Dhoni could have survived the 8-0 drubbing but he did and never thought of giving up. Tough times test tough people. From winning the World Cup in 2011 and the Champions Trophy in 2013 India lost the first bilateral ODI series to Bangladesh in 2015. They lost the tri-series in Australia just ahead of the World Cup 2015 and there were little hopes from the Men in Blue. Yet he picked up the bits he had in hand, inspired and transformed the same bowling attack that looked toothless into one that bowled out all the opponents before they ran into Australia in the semi-final and were eventually eliminated. Asia Cup success and World T20 semi-finals are the latest achievements and the most recent Zimbabwe tour was his attempt to share his insight and experience with the next gen. The players who will serve Indian cricket for the next 5 or even 10 years.