Dhoni's 7 claims to fame

Celebrating the birthday of India's most prolific captain till date, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, I here list 7(his jersey no.)  things that made Dhoni the successful captain he is and things that made him so popular amongst the masses.

1. The Hairstyle- Well , well this is probably what helped him get noticed by one and all. More than his batting or keeping skills, people were rather interested in the long flowing locks of Dhoni. Even the Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf could not resist talking about it and the hairstyle became an instant hit(more in rural India) but it was something which uniquely came to be identified with Dhoni. Who knew that the small town man with the unkempt hair would one day lead the National side to unprecedented glory.

2. 148 against Pakistan- This was the first time Dhoni,s batting came to the fore. Dhoni walked in at no. 3 to everyone's surprise and what followed was a brutal massacre of Pakistani bowlers. Dhoni smashed 148 off just 123 balls studded with towering sixes with his unique unconventional batting style which made him the Indian Afridi at that time. He played another swashbuckling innings against Sri Lanka when he smashed 183 runs with 10 sixes that established him as the big hitter of the India team.

3. The Finisher- In the period 2005-06 Dhoni had started to amaze everyone with his batting skills and the 2 hundreds mentioned above pretty much cemented his place in the India team. I still remember along with Yuvraj he helped India win many tough games by being there in the end and scoring quickly but responsibly to chase scores like 280-290 even when the asking rate was 8-9. According to me, this type of gameplay was what impressed everyone and contributed in making him the skipper.

4. T20 world cup- The turning point.India sent a team for T20 world cup with youngsters and debutants , a team devoid of Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly and the skipper, surprisingly was not Yuvraj but a relatively new Dhoni. Nobody expected India to do well with such a team but again to everyone's surprise Dhoni brought home the T20 world cup and showed brilliant leadership skills. Who can forget handing the last over to Joginder Sharma instead of Bhajji and going on to get the cup. As Dravid was already showing interest in stepping down as captain after the 2007 world cup debacle, Dhoni was made the captain of the ODI team as well.

5 ODI series win in Australia- After the controversy ridden test series against Australia, the selectors introduced fresh controversy when they again selected a very young team under Dhoni dropping Dravid and Ganguly but retaining Tendulkar. Again nobody expected the inexpereienced team to beat Australia in their backyard but then Dhoni again led India to history, their first ever ODI series win down under and this established belief in his captaincy and put to rest the claims of Dhoni blessed with only good luck and that the T20 WC was a fluke. This was the beggining of a new era in Indian cricket.

6. Test Champions- After Kumble led the Indian test team successfully and infused bravery in the team, Dhoni was given the reins of the test team also and boy he responded brilliantly yet again. Beating Australia convincingly at home, drawing series with South Africa in South Africa, winning in New Zealand, winning in Sri Lanka and finally getting India to the no. 1 rank in test cricket for the first time. Even the veteran Tendulkar called him the greatest captain he has ever played under and thus Dhoni had become one of the greatest captains in all time history. Added to that he has still not lost a bilateral test series.

7. 2011 world cup- This was finally the biggest achievement which made him the darling of every Indian fan and with no doubt rose him above all. After 28 years India brought home the world cup. Sachin's dream has been fulfilled, India are world champs, the team is the strongest and like a big happy family, Dhoni is studded everywhere from banners, hoardings, newspapers to TV commercials of almost every brand. Truly Dhoni has done the unthinkable and has surpassed even the master blaster in terms of popularity. Every child not only dreams of becoming Tendulkar but many now want to become Dhoni. He has given the thousands of budding small town cricketers the belief of becoming what he is today. This is probably his biggest achievement.

Half centurion VVS Laxman

VVS Laxman misses another century. In the 2nd test against the West Indies Laxman scored 2 half centuries, 85 and 87 in both innings but could not go past 100. This is not new. Laxman in his career has been in a position to score the hundred several times but then just gets out in the 70's or 80's. Coming to the statistic part, among India's 3 premier batsmen Dravid tops the half century list with 60 while Tendulkar and Laxman follow with 51 each. Laxman has played the least number of tests among the 3 but stil he sits pretty close to both of them in this department. In 100's Laxman has only 16 where Dravid has double the amount while Tendulkar has more than triple the amount of 100's. This clears the picture that Laxman has a poor conversion rate in converting 50's to 100's.

While many including Laxman himself argue that  he has batted at the no. 6 position for most if the tests and has had only tail enders for his support and thus has been unable to score the amount of 100's he should have considering his potential and experience. But then just have a look at Adam Gilchrist's record. He has scored 17 hundreds , 1 more than Laxman in 96 tests , much less than Laxman and at no. 7 in a world champ team whose top order seldom failed. And in this test match he batted at no. 4 but still the old habit ceases to get away. While Laxman has played innumerable match winning innings in his career but has many times failed to top it with 100's. In the recent cases, He guided India to an unbelievable win in Mohali with Ishant Sharma as his partner. He made 96 but again could not make the win even sweeter with an epic 100. He helped India win in Durban with a great gritty innings but again could not convert it to 100. His best innings of 281 in a follow on against Australia was memorable but then yet again this time he missed the big 300 mark.

Even though Laxman is respected by one and all for playing match winning innings almost every time he is asked for and playing selflessly only for the team(recent example was trying to score against WI in the 2nd innings). But ad mist all this respect, He needs to do justice to his records. Though team's victory is much more important than records, but then why get out in the 90's while you have guided your team to victory. You can equally do so with a 100. Whenever people talk about great batsmen, they would first have a look at the stats and a player of caliber  of Laxman deserves the best records. You may say I do not care about records, I only want my team to win and blah blah but inside you do want to get those 100's instead of 80's. Lets hope Laxman in his new no. 5 position sets the record straight in the twilight of his career.

Importance of Sehwag

Will the selectors go in with a semi fit Virender Sehwag in place of a fully fit young indian opener? As the selection committee sits today to select the Indian squad for the 4 test match series in England this July, this will be the one major head-ache for them. While the rest of the squad looks predictable with Tendulkar, Gambhir, Zaheer and Sreesanth expected to comeback, the only uncertainity would be Sehwag's selection. But why should the selectors go in with a 70-80% fir Sehwag?

Well this question would be correctly answered by the English bowlers. Sehwag in his career has dramatically influenced opposition bowler's thinkings and plans. Even though Indian line-up would be studded with classic legends like Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman who might play better than him in the series but a Sehwag is needed at the top to rattle the opposition. Sehwag can give you the psychological advantage in just a session, he can give hopes of winning you a test match on the first day and he can well destroy a bowler for the rest of the series in the first test itself.

 The selectors know even if Sehwag struggles in England due to fitness related issues his inclusion in the team would heavily affect the plans of English bowlers and thus other players like Tendulkar and Dravid would be at ease to silently kill the opoosition. Its the Sehwag effect that has transformed India and India are no world champs without him. After Jayasuriya, he is the one who has reformed the art of batting. He has demolished many world class bowlers minus any technique. The coaches would never let their students bat like Sehwag but still the "nawab of najafgarh" has emerged as the most feared batsman in world cricket today. Sehwag has got this ability from probably the gully cricket in Delhi which has this notion of slambang fast paced cricket where missing a ball is pretty much equivalent to giving away your wicket. This taught Sehwag to hit any kind of ball that comes to him to the boundary. He shamelessly hits even the good balls and the good bowlers. That is what makes him Sehwag and India dont want to miss him on this tour which everyone thinks would be India's test of whether they truly deserve the number one spot or not. This answers the question as to why the selectors might opt for an unfit Virender Sehwag.