VVS Laxman pays tribute to MS Dhoni, “Composure under pressure was his calling card”

MS Dhoni led India to no.1 Test ranking for the first time under his captaincy.

VVS Laxman and MS DhoniRecently, Laxman has been paying tributes to many of his teammates like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, and Rahul Dravid on Twitter and this time it was the turn of MS Dhoni, the captain who led India to the no.1 rankings in Test sport for the first time.

VVS Laxman has seen the brilliance of MS Dhoni in the longest format of the game from close quarters for a long time. Dhoni took over the reins of captaincy in Tests in 2008 and Laxman called time on his illustrious career in 2012.

WATCH: "How to get you out?", Dhoni gave a witty reply to Deepak Chahar's question

"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 catalyzed the stirring captaincy saga of a leader who talked through his deeds," Laxman tweeted.

Dhoni made his India debut in 2004 but came to fore with his belligerent 148 against Pakistan in the Vishakhapatnam ODI in 2005. He was named captain of the Indian T20I team for the inaugural World T20 in 2007 as senior players made way for youngsters and Dhoni led his young bunch to the championship title.

He then took over the ODI captaincy later that year and became the only captain to win all major ICC trophies (50-over World Cup, T20 World Cup, and Champions Trophy). Dhoni called time on his Test career in 2014 after playing 90 Tests and gave up captaincy of the limited-overs teams to Virat Kohli in 2017.

The Jharkhand-born cricketer last played any cricket in 2019 July, when he played for India against New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup semi-final in England.

Dhoni was slated to return to the cricket field on March 29 in the IPL's opening match between CSK and Mumbai Indians. However, the tournament has been suspended indefinitely as a precautionary measure against coronavirus.

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 09 Jun, 2020

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