MS Dhoni's greatest quality was that he always led by example: Rahul Dravid
In the wake of MS Dhoni’s retirement from Test cricket after the 3rd Test in Melbourne yesterday, former Indian captain Rahul Dravid has richly praised the 33-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman, saying that he really enjoyed his tenure as a player under his leadership.
"He was a captain I enjoyed playing under," Dravid told ESPNcricinfo. "One of the things I liked about MS was, what you saw was what you got. Very uncomplicated, always led by example. One of the things I really liked about playing under MS was that he never asked you to do anything that he himself didn't do."
Talking about the impact Dhoni has had on Indian cricket, Dravid remarked: "For someone to come from a small town like Ranchi, to go on and captain India and play 90 Test matches, to do it the way he has, I think he brought a lot of dignity to the job of captaincy. He might not be everyone's cup of tea, but he was his own cup of tea and he led with a lot of success and that can never be taken away from him.
"And he's been an inspiration. If there are kids in small towns today dreaming and aspiring for great things, not only in cricket but in various fields, then MS Dhoni has a lot to do with it."
With a Test match still to go against Australia, many people were completely taken aback by the timing of Dhoni’s retirement. Dravid, too, was surprised at the decision but added that he had anyway expected Dhoni to reconsider his future in the longer format after the series.
"I guess it was unexpected that he would do it in the middle of the series," Dravid said. "I expected him to review it at the end of the series, without India playing Test cricket for the next seven or eight months.
"Knowing MS, if the series was alive, I don't think he would have taken the decision in the middle of the series, but having seen that the series was already gone, maybe he felt that if he was going to go, then maybe this was the time to do it, and to give Virat Kohli a Test match in Australia to captain, Wriddhiman Saha another opportunity in a Test match, and to start the process of taking India's Test team forward."
The one criticism Dhoni has had to face right through his Test career is the perception that he has never really been interested in Test cricket, but Dravid was having none of it, saying that it would’ve been impossible for him to play the 90 Tests that he did if he hadn’t genuinely embraced the Test game.
You cannot play 90 Test matches by not embracing Test cricket and not wanting to work hard at it and make a career out of it," Dravid said. "It's another matter that his one-day record and his T20 record are much better than his Test record, and his achievements in one-day cricket and T20 cricket are phenomenal.
"That's not to say he did not have a good record as a Test cricketer as well. Sure, if you judge him by the standards of an Adam Gilchrist, then yes, maybe his Test record wasn't that good, but purely if you judge him by the standards of Indian wicketkeeper-batsmen and forget everything else - playing lower down the order, playing 90 Test matches, most dismissals for India, most runs as a wicketkeeper-batsman for India, most centuries - it's a phenomenal record as a Test cricketer and something he can be very proud of."