MS Dhoni was made Team India captain for the first time in September 2007.
Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar revealed why he recommended MS Dhoni's name for Team India's captaincy in 2007, despite the fact that the wicketkeeper-batsman had never captained a side at any level.
Notably, Dhoni was made India captain for the first time in September 2007, when he was asked to lead a young side in the inaugural edition of the ICC T20 World Cup in South Africa, and did a fantastic job, taking the side to unexpected title glory.
Following this, Dhoni was also made the ODI captain as well and then the Test captain in 2008 as well. And the rest is history, as the former Indian captain finished his career as one of the greatest captains in cricket history, having won all three ICC white-ball trophies as India captain.
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Well, Tendulkar now revealed that the BCCI had first approached him to lead the side in 2007, but he, along with Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, decided to give the opportunity to young Dhoni.
As reported by the Indian Express, Sachin Tendulkar said in an Infosys event: “This was in England when I was offered captaincy. I said we have a very good leader in the team who was still a junior, and he is someone you should look at closely. I have had a lot of conversations with him, more so on the field where I would be fielding at first slip and asked him, what do you think?”
He continued, “Though Rahul was the captain I would ask him and the feedback I received was very balanced, calm, yet very much mature. Good captaincy is about being a step ahead of the opposition. If one is smart enough to do that, like we say, josh se nahi, hosh se khelo (play sensibly).”
Tendulkar signed off by saying, “It doesn’t happen instantly, you won’t get 10 wickets in 10 balls. You have to plan it. At the end of the day, the scoreboard matters. And I saw those qualities in him. Hence, I recommended his name.”