The Golden Boy in Indian Cricket

The year 2007 started with heartbreak with India bowing out of the Cricket World Cup in the very first round to make it the worst performance by an Indian team in recent history.

But then, every dark cloud has a silver lining and from the ashes rose the phoenix – and it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

India got a chance to redeem themselves in the same year because the International Cricket Council organised a T20 world cup in South Africa in September 2007. The senior players of the Indian team like, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, and Anil Kumble opted out of the tournament and Mahendra Singh Dhoni was made the captain of the Indian team.

India had played only one International T20 match till that time and was the least experienced team in that format. India didn’t have any domestic tournaments in T20 format at that time. In a way, the tournament was not taken very seriously by BCCI at that time. 

All was about to change in a fortnight.

It felt like 1983 because nobody gave India a chance especially with the senior players not playing the tournament. The other teams were in full strength. But India surprised everyone by not only reaching the finals but also going on to win it. The 5 run win over Pakistan in the finals remains one the closest matches ever played between the arch-rivals in world cup history.

The tournament had all the thrills that the ICC expected it to have and this tournament turned out to be a defining moment in world cricket because IPL followed the next year and as the saying goes – rest is history.

A year that started with a major heartbreak of losing out in the 50 overs world cup turned into a great year for cricket fans as India won a world tournament in cricket after 2 decades.

Along with that win, India started a golden run in World Cricket.

In 2008, India went on to defeat Australia in Australia in a Triangular Series – thereby becoming the first Indian team to achieve that feat. Later that year, India defeated Australia in a Test series in India, and in 2009, India won a Test series in New Zealand after 4 decades. All this under the new captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

All this culminated in India being crowned the world number one in Test cricket for the first time ever. For 21 months, India held on to that crown.

In 2011, the 50 overs world cup was held in India. Till that time, no hosting nation had ever won a world cup. All of that was about to change as the Golden Boy of the Golden period in Indian cricket, MS Dhoni, led India to a famous world cup win on 2nd April 2011 – the cup came back home.

Though India’s test record outside the subcontinent suffered reverses after 2011, the ODI bandwagon continued to roll on, and then in 2013, India defeated England in England to win the ICC Champions trophy.

For the first time ever (and it’s yet to be repeated yet) we had a captain who had led his team to win 3 different ICC world championships – ICC T20 World Cup, ICC Cricket (50 overs) world cup, and ICC Champions Trophy.

I call this period of 2007-2013, as India’s golden period in cricketing history. In all this, one man played a pivotal role and he is Mahendra Singh Dhoni – The captain cool who led from the front with aplomb.

As the world’s best wicketkeeper captain, turns 40 today, here I am wishing him the very best for the years to come. His contribution to Indian cricket will remain unparalleled and I hope he keeps entertaining us through IPL for another couple of seasons.

Happy Birthday, Mahi.

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