Legacy is a heavy term, a combination of carrying forward something one has inherited from times past and what he will leave behind for the times to come. Mahendra Singh Dhoni relinquishing the limited overs captaincy should not at all come as a surprise to all of us who know him so well- and yet no one knows him well enough apart from himself alone. That is the kind of person Dhoni has always been. Neither the cameras and reporters at a press conference nor a fabricated farewell, just a press release from the side of his employer, the BCCI. With Dhoni the captain calling it a day, we get a chance to look back and ask what kind of legacy he is leaving behind, also statistically comparing his captaincy stint to his predecessors and contemporary captains of their respective countries.
We at Cricmetric have come up with a way of ranking captains in International cricket. You can find the ranks of different captains across formats at http://www.cricmetric.com/captainranks.py . The method uses head-to-head win-loss records between each pair of captains to find a score for each captain, thereby giving him a rank. Among his peers (who have led their team in at least 10 ODI’s), Dhoni ranks second only to the great Ricky Ponting. Ponting carried forward what Steve Waugh had left behind and turned the mighty Aussies into an invincible force. Dhoni, on the other hand, had to pull out an Indian team that was in doldrums after the shocking exit at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 in the Caribbean. His first assignment as captain was the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa where anyone who gave Dhoni’s young men a chance was considered mocking at them instead. Dhoni though, had different ideas and he went on to lift the silverware, infusing a new life into Indian cricket. With it began a new era in Indian cricket, where young blood took over the reins from experienced legs and the team began clinching victories from jaws of defeat with Dhoni at its helm.
Dhoni led India in 199 ODI matches and 72 T20 internationals winning 110 out of the former and 41 of the latter. When it came to T20’s there was hardly anyone as street smart as Dhoni was while leading his team. He is the only captain to lead his country in all editions of the ICC T20 World Cup and that in itself makes a statement about his abilities. Achieving a win percentage of 59.57% in the ODI format was one of Dhoni’s biggest victories as captain. It can be argued that Michael Clarke who had a win percentage of 70.42 and took Australia to the world title in 2015 was ahead of Dhoni but here again Dhoni’s longevity wins him the battle against his Aussie counterpart. Clarke’s career was cut short by injuries and he could lead his team only in 74 ODI’s compared to Dhoni’s 199. It is no myth that Dhoni is still one of the fittest cricketers going around and looks in great shape to represent India in the next World Cup in England.
When compared to Indian captains of the past, two names that come to mind are Mohammad Azharuddin and Sourav Ganguly. Azhar had a win percentage of 54.16 with 90 wins out of 174 matches while Sourav was a shade lower with 53.52% (76 wins in 147 matches). Ganguly is someone who gave Indian cricket the required direction and impetus it needed in tricky times at the start of the century. Dhoni is, in fact, a product of the Gangulian era. Ganguly was aggressive and taught the team to win overseas and fight the opposition. However, there was a sense of uncertainty as to how the team performed back then. They could be great on the field on a given day and yet prove lack lustre on another. The team under Dhoni could be called more dependable and gave the Indian fan more confidence that they could win matches, whatever be the situation. This is where Dhoni’s cool as a cucumber attitude and nerves of steel came into play. When it comes down to the battle of nerves no one can beat Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Apart from this, his efficient management of resources at disposal can be the subject of study at a premier management school. Such an intelligent cricketer that he is, he gave the ideal environment to each player to express himself and blossom for the benefit of the team. He knew exactly what role he had to himself play and seldom disappointed. You call it luck or whatever, but his moves in all crunch situations came off like he had himself scripted them. Be it handing the ball to Joginder Sharma in Johannesburg in 2007 or promoting himself in Mumbai in 2011 or giving Ishant Sharma the ball in Birmingham in 2013, all these moves left us clueless but he had rationale for each one of them. And that is where he stood out. That is where he took India across the line in so many tense encounters. That is where he gave us all hope of beating any opposition in any given conditions. That is where were born cricketers like Virat Kohli who show us time and again that Indian cricket is in safe hands going forward. And that is where you understand that Mahendra Singh Dhoni was not just the captain of a cricket frenzy nation, he was a leader.