8 Decisions by Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni that changed Indian cricket

2. Dhoni- Promoting Rohit Sharma to the top of the order in white-ball cricket

11 years after Ganguly pulled off a masterstroke by slotting in Sehwag as a Test match opener, Mahendra Singh Dhoni did the same with Rohit Sharma in white-ball cricket. Just like in the early 2000s when India were struggling to find a potent Test match opener, the Men in Blue were in the same conundrum as they headed into the 2013 Champions Trophy in England.

Rohit Sharma had started out as a middle-order batsman in white-ball cricket but for the better part of first five years of his ODI career, his returns were modest, to say the least. With just 2 hundred in his 90-odd ODIs, it looked like Sharma would end up as one of the biggest underachievers despite boasting of such precocious talent.

‘Sharma had batted at the top of the order in the 2013 home series against England but with Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan already in the squad, he wasn’t supposed to open in the Champions Trophy. But, as he had so often done in his career, Dhoni pulled a rabbit out of the hat and slotted Sharma at the top of the order in the opening game against South Africa.

The rest is history. Since that opening game of the 2013 Champions Trophy, no ODI opener has scored more runs [7032 in 133 innings], has a better average [59.59] or have scored more hundreds- 27, the next best is Shikhar Dhawan with 17- and of-course more double-hundreds [3] than the ‘Hitman’.