Indian cricket scaled unprecedented heights when MS Dhoni took over as a captain at the young age of 26.

Under his leadership, India won the Inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup in 2007, ODI World Cup in 2011 and Champions Trophy in 2013, making him the only captain to win all three ICC trophies.

But perhaps, his greatest contribution to the game was how much importance he gave to fielding - an aspect that was not looked at very seriously by teams. 

Former India fielding coach R Sridhar, who joined the team in 2014 when Dhoni was the captain, recalled how the former skipper made it very clear that for him fielding and running between the wickets are the two areas where there was absolutely no room for complacency.

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Dhoni was criticized heavily for dropping several senior players who weren’t quick enough on the field. But that decision paid rich dividends.

"MS… when he was captain, he led the fielding. And the running between the wicket was to me, an eye opener. MS said that 'two things that are non-negotiable for me are fielding and running between the wicket'. And that is something which still holds true. And the kind of emphasis he laid on fielding, Virat took it forward. Ravi always said that the 11 best fielders will take the park. So that is the kind of importance that was laid on fielding," Sridhar told Cricket.com.

Sridhar believes that Ravindra Jadeja and Kohli are the two greatest fielders for India in the current national team.

"Some of the best fielding sessions I have had are with Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Mohit Sharma was a great fielder being a fast bowler. And the usual suspects are Kohli, Jadeja, Manish Pandey… you had fun fielding with them. The guys like Chahal, Kuldeep, and Kedar are the ones who worked really hard on their skills. I really enjoyed working with those guys," he added.

MS Dhoni announced his retirement in 2019 with more than 15000 international runs to his name across formats.

(CRICKET.COM INPUTS)