MS Dhoni's calling card was composure, according to Laxman
Former Indian batsman VVS Laxman took to Twitter to pen down his thoughts on the man who was once his captain, MS Dhoni. According to the stylish right-hander from Hyderabad, MS Dhoni’s ‘calling card was composure’. He particularly praised the former captain for his calmness under pressure.
Laxman believes that MS Dhoni’s ability to see cricket as a sport rather than as a matter of life and death helped him keep his cool in moments of greater pressure. Addressing the Jharkhand man’s captaincy, Laxman explained that the 2007 World T20 was the catalyst to the MS Dhoni captaincy story, and that he was a leader that led by example.
“Blessed with the rare equanimity of viewing cricket as a sport and not a matter of life and death, @msdhoni’s calling card was composure, especially under pressure. The 2007 World T20 triumph catalysed the stirring captaincy saga of a leader who talked through his deeds,” Laxman tweeted.
On being named the captain of a young team in the absence of senior players, MS Dhoni ended up leading the bunch to victory at the inaugural World T20 in 2007, beating Pakistan in the final. This win would eventually propel him to full-time captaincy, and MS Dhoni would captain the country in more that 300 matches across formats.
MS Dhoni is the latest in a long list of former teammates that VVS Laxman has chosen to pay his tributes to on Twitter during this lockdown. They played together until the latter’s retirement in 2012.
VVS Laxman played under MS Dhoni's captaincy 34 times
From the time MS Dhoni was made captain of the Indian Test team in 2008, till his own retirement, VVS Laxman played 34 matches under the former’s leadership. They won 15 of those matches and lost just 9. Although India did have some torrid times in Australia and England, they were close to unbeatable at home.
While MS Dhoni retired from Test cricket in 2014, his last ODI came in the 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand. Whether that is the last international match of his career remains to be seen, and we will have to wait for cricket to restart post-COVID19 to find out for sure.