What If: MS Dhoni had not become India's captain

Perhaps no Indian cricketer has seen as much as Mahendra Singh Dhoni has. From suffering crushing defeats to scaling the pinnacle of the sport, the man has seen it all. In an 11-year-old career, Dhoni has captained India for nine years.

We look at what might have been had he not been given the captaincy reins back in 2007:

7. Seniors like Ganguly, Dravid and Harbhajan might have had longer careers

Maybe Ganguly and Dravid would have had bigger careers

When MS Dhoni took over the reins in limited-overs cricket in 2007, he brought in a new strategy early on in his tenure where he backed youth even at the expense of the experienced players like Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid etc.

It was a decision that didn't please many, but Dhoni’s rationale was that the newer set of players emerging out of the system would have at least 80-100 ODIs of experience before the next World Cup came around in 2011.

Had those players not been axed at that time, they might have even had longer careers in ODIs. 

A few years later, a similar policy of providing youth a chance was adopted in the case of Harbhajan Singh, who didn’t feature in many big ticket events, and the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin got opportunities to impress.