The era of Indian cricket under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni is arguably the sport’s golden era in the country. With Dhoni at the helm, the Men in Blue conquered world cricket as they won all three ICC limited-overs trophy with victories in the 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 Cricket World Cup, and 2013 Champions Trophy. Further, the Indian team had some significant victories like the 2008 CB series in Australia and the 2010 Asia Cup to show.
Lalchand Rajput, who was the manager of the Indian team in the T20 World Cup — Dhoni’s first assignment as skipper — spoke about his experience of seeing Jharkhand-lad lead the side.
Speaking on Sportskeeda live, Rajput said Dhoni’s leadership style was a blend of both Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. He was quoted as saying, “To be very honest Dhoni was very very calm and used to think two steps ahead of the opponent and he was always a thinking captain. He was a mixture of Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. Ganguly used to give players the confidence and he was the one who changed the mentality of the Indian team. ”
He further praised the wicket-keeper batsman for having faith in young players saying “So, I think that carried forward with Dhoni because even he gave opportunities to players and if he saw potential in someone he used to give him ample opportunities. Dhoni will never show any evasive action on the ground and that helped the players in giving their best.”
Rajput, after helping India win the maiden T20 World Cup in South Africa, was appointed coach of the Mumbai Indians in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League. In recent years, he has coached the Afghanistan and Zimbabwe national teams.
