CricDigs Blogs

Well it looks like that for the first time the Indian cricket team has witnessed a smooth transition of captaincy. Literally, for the first time the outgoing and incoming captain are in total harmony with each other. While Kumble’s exit was timed to perfection, Dhoni’s sudden rise to take charge of the whole team has been phenomenal. Even Kumble cannot help from gushing about the fact that how calming an influence Dhoni has been on the entire dressing room. Kumble was selfless enough not to hang on just for the sake of completing a test series. How did Dhoni compliment this gesture of India’s ex-test captain? When it came to lofting the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008, he virtually handed over the trophy to Kumble. The pessimists would say that Dhoni timed this move to make himself more sellable as a captain, but I think it was a true reflection of his honest and forthright demeanour.

When did it last happen that ex-captains in a sub-continental team have lauded the efforts of a new captain to such an extent that it would appear that before Dhoni, India never had an unquestioned authority as the Indian captain!! Every senior in the team from Tendulkar to Dravid have been praising Dhoni’s remarkable ability to bond with the team. Dhoni’s gesture of letting Ganguly captain in the dying stages of the Nagpur test match may have received heaps of praises but it was more about how the man keeps thinking about handling his team best, even when he has spend the entire day on the cricket field bending on his knees, i.e. as the wicket-keeper. Alec Stewart of England had once tried the role of being the captain-cum-keeper-cum-batsman in the team and he failed miserably.

Dhoni has excelled in this permutation. This is a testament of his courage and self-belief. This is why everyone is singing songs about India’s bright cricketing future — the man in-charge looks assured of handling any problem that the team might face, his personal form notwithstanding one can count upon Dhoni on keep the team’s priorities above his reputation. It sure seem like it is going to be Mahi all the way. I am keeping my fingers crossed — just not accustomed to having such happy-looking Indian captains.