MS Dhoni’s achievement as a cricketer is surreal, to say the least. In particular, he has etched his name in the history books as one of India’s finest captains.
Dhoni is the only skipper in the history of cricket to have won all three ICC white-ball trophies – 2007 World T20, 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy. He also led India to the pinnacle in Test cricket.
While Dhoni has retired from international cricket in 2020, he continues to feature in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Last month, the 41-year-old captained CSK to record-equalling fifth IPL title.
On Sunday (June 11), a tweet praising Dhoni broke the internet. The post was made after India lost to Australia in the World Test Championship final at The Oval. It was India’s ninth consecutive failed attempt to lift the ICC trophy since 2013.
"No coach, no mentor, young boys, most of the senior player's denied to take part. Never captained any single match before. This guy defeated prime Australia in semifinals and won a T20 World Cup in 48 days after becoming captain," the tweet read, referring to Dhoni leading a young Indian team to the inaugural T20 World Cup title, months after India were knocked out of the ODI World Cup in the first round.
The tweet, however, didn’t go down well with former India spinner Harbhajan Singh, who was also part of the T20 and ODI World Cup winning campaigns in 2007 and 2011.
Harbhajan quoted the post and wrote: "Yes, when these matches were played this young boy was playing alone from India... not the other 10. So, alone he won the World Cup trophies. Irony when Australia or any other nation wins the World Cup, headlines say Australia or etc country won. But when India wins, it's said captain won. It's a team sports. Win together, lose together."
In the past, former opener Gautam Gambhir has also expressed displeasure over the media giving complete credit to Dhoni for India’s World Cup wins.
Gambhir has also raised his voice against the hero-worship culture in Indian cricket, saying that fans and media should talk about the team rather than adoring specific individuals.
