Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra feels MS Dhoni didn't let anyone feel insecure under his captaincy ahead of a high-pressure match which resulted in the team's success. He compared the leadership of Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, and current India skipper Virat Kohli.
Under Dhoni, the Indian cricket team played four finals in ICC tournaments and won three of them. India won the 2007 T20 World Cup, followed by the 2011 ODI World Cup, and 2013 Champions Trophy. They failed to win the 2014 T20 World Cup final against Sri Lanka.
So far, Kohli has led the Men in Blue to two ICC event finals in the 2017 Champions Trophy and World Test Championship and India lost both. Ganguly's team reached three ICC tournament finals; they lost two and shared the 2002 Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka due to rain.
"Dhoni's class has been that under him the team has flourished. The few things I see that make Dhoni the best captain in the world is that he doesn't make changes. He didn't make anyone feel insecure in the team," Chopra said in a video posted on his YouTube channel.
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Chopra lauded Dhoni for motivating the players before a big match and said the team which panics the least performs better. "If you see his team from the league stage to the knockouts, the team and the protagonists have remained the same. He has always got players who make runs in the big encounters. When you reach the quarterfinals, semi-finals, or a final, the team that makes the least mistakes wins, the team that panics the least, and the team which consistently plays the same XI so that all players are secure in the end," he said.
The 43-year-old spoke about the consistent performers under Dhoni who made it possible for India to win the ICC tournaments.
"That's what MS Dhoni did for his team. If you see the 2007 and 2011 finals, you will remember Gautam Gambhir. You will remember the entire 2011 World Cup for Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni himself in the final. In 2013, you will see consistent performances from everybody.
"In 2014, you were left behind because only Kohli's bat fired while it fell silent for the rest of the players. So Dhoni the captain will always be dependent on some players. The big-ticket players, they all came to the party in knockout matches,” he said.
