After a drought and wait of 17 long years, the T20 World Cup trophy is back in India with Rohit-Kohli and the Men in Blue finally managing to overcome their last hurdle without choking and succumbing to the pressure of expectations as had been happening with Team India since MSD and his troops laid their hands on the Champions Trophy in 2013. However, there has been a stark difference in the way a rookie Dhoni approached his T20 World Cup triumph of 2007 and how an almost veteran Rohit marshaled his troops to the ultimate victory. Let’s analyze the background contexts and the contrasting ways they scripted history in their own unique ways. First the pedigree comparisons, when Dhoni took the helm as the Captain of Team India in 2007, India was still dealing with and trying to come to terms with the crushing loss in the 2007’s ODI World Cup held in the West Indies under the leadership of Rahul Dravid, wherein, they bowed out of the tournament at the group stages itself. The Indian selectors; assured by Sachin Tendulkar’s correct judgment of Dhoni’s game sense and leadership potential ; brought Dhoni to the fore and entrusted him to lead India in the T20 World Cup held in September 2007. Thus, unlike Rohit, the firebrand Dhoni had no pressure of expectations on him and leading a team of rookies and some seasoned players from the front he created history and became MSD from just Dhoni. However, Rohit and Kohli, who took on the mantle of leadership from MSD as worthy and capable successors, had seemingly carried the burden of expectations in ICC tournaments and crumbled under that pressure, until now. Dhoni’s warrior-monk-like stoic temperament, Maverick approach to the game and nerves of steel, which could seemingly take any amount of pressure and still remain unfazed whatever be the occasion or situation, was unmatched and simply out of this world. However, the Rohit and Kohli-led team, after stumbling at the final frontier twice, in the 2023’s WTC and ODI World Cup finals, effectively demonstrated that they learnt the underlying common lesson and mastered it to ultimately hold their nerve and extract victory even from the jaws of an almost certain defeat in yesterday’s high-pressure & swinging final to bring the much-awaited joy to 1.4 billion Indians across the globe especially after the heartbreak of November 2023. Another key aspect of Dhoni’s approach to leadership and tactical play in 2007’s T20 WC was the instinctive & intuitive decision-making and almost a Maverickish approach to game play and resource deployment in-alignment with the situations. A former international coach even termed it as the ‘gambler’s streak’, however, personally, Maverick would be more appropriate in the context. The deployment of an untested Joginder Sharma to bowl the final over of an India-Pakistan World Cup final would almost be the ultimate gamble for any Indian Captain, with his neck, the world cup and almost the entire playing career at stake and on the line for the team. But he believed in his instincts & the ability to hold the nerve and took the call, in the interest of the team, as the situation demanded it as, according to him, the surface suited his kind of a bowler. It was akin to Rohit asking an untested Shivam Dube to bowl the final over against Killer Miller. That’s what made Dhoni into MSD! Further, without getting into any nitpicking and without taking any credit away; in yesterday’s final, Rohit seemed reactive and a little rigid in his tactical play albeit his usual brilliance. On a surface on which the spinners were not getting any kind of purchase at all from the outset; he chose to persist with his spinners who collectively bowled 9 overs from which they eventually conceded 109 runs which had almost brought Team India on to the verge of almost another defeat by the end of 15th over with South Africa needing just 30 runs of 30 balls with 6 wickets in hand. However, all's well that ends well. Kudos to Team India for Win.
