Dhoni: India's Captain Cool

NEW DELHI: Mahendra Singh Dhoni believes in destiny with a pinch of hard work. India's man of the moment attributes the fabulous Twenty20 World Cup win to the team's destiny.

"Whatever is destined to happen will happen. It is not just my own destiny, it was the destiny of the whole team --but I believe unless you do your required hard work you don't achieve it", he said.

Dhoni took just a fornight to prove his mettle as the captain and and if the World Cup performances is anything to go by, India has found its 'Captain Cool' in the star batsman-stumper with flowing tresses.

The 26-year-old Dhoni's maturity and composure in pressure cooker situations and his shrewd captaincy stood out in both the matches against Pakistan, as also in the semifinal against Australia.

After the group match with Pakistan ended in a tie, Dhoni asked Robin Uthappa, Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh to take the bowl-out, resting his tired pacers. Dhoni anticipated such situations and had done the homework.

His opposite number Shoaib Malik was at sea and after India won the bowl-out 3-0 to maintain its clean slate against Pakistan in World Cup, Malik admitted he had no clue about it.

In the match against Australia too, Dhoni showed tremendous courage. He took a calculated gamble by asking unheralded Joginder Sharma to bowl the last over.

Teammates warned him that the Haryana all-rounder's military pace would make him an easy meat for the Aussies but Dhoni felt it would be difficult to score off Joginder's pace, or rather lack of it, and the captain stood vindicated in the end as Australia eventually lost by 15 runs.

It was the same story last night. Pakistan needed 13 runs off the last over and Dhoni again tossed the ball to Joginder.

Misbah-ul-Haq was going great guns and he hit Joginder for a six to reduce the gap but the Indian did the trick again as Misbah scooped to perish, finding S Sreesanth at short fine leg. Once again, Dhoni had outstmarted his rivals and it was as much India's win as it was for Dhoni's leadership skills.

Dhoni loves life in the fast lane, something evident from his penchant for fast bikes, and it's hardly surpring that within three years, the affable swashbuckler rose from the obscurity of Jharkhand to lead India to Twenty20 World Cup glory.

And 'Mahi', as he is affectionately called, could well have been lost to football but for his soccer coach, who felt he was better suited for cricket and convinced his ward to pursue the bat-and-ball game.

So football's loss became cricket's gain and Dhoni's fairytale career touched new height with last night's nail-biting win over arch-rivals Pakistan.

Since getting the call-up for the Vinoo Mankad trophy under-16 championship in 1997-98, Dhoni has never looked backed.

With solid performance in Duleep and Deodhar Trophy, Dhoni started knocking the door of the selectors and he played his first ODI against Bangladesh at Chittagong on December 23, 2004. But a duck on debut meant it was a low-key start for the youngster, who went on to establish his reputation as one of the fiercest hitters of the ball in contemporary cricket.

It was in his fifth ODI, against Pakistan at Vishakapatnam, where Dhoni announced his arrival with a swashbuckling 148. And in November, Dhoni hit a magnificent 183 not out at Jaipur against Sri Lanka to eclipse idol Adam Gilchrist's record of highest score by a wicketkeeper.

His Test debut came against Sri Lanka at Chennai in December, 2005 and he hit 148-- his highest knock - against Pakistan in what was just his fifth Test match.

Since then, he has played 20 Tests and 84 ODIs and emerged as a core member of the Indian team.

Dhoni averages 36.39 in Tests and 44.23 in ODIs, with a striking rate of 96.26 in the shorter version of the game.

With runs flowing from the blazing blade, Dhoni briefly occupied the top slot in the ICC ODI batsman's rankings in 2005-06.

Dhoni was appointed vice captain of the Indian ODI squad for the tour of England and Ireland and was soon named captain of the Twenty20 squad for the ongoing World Cup in South Africa. And his meteoric rise saw him being named Rahul Dravid's successor in the ODI team with BCCI President Sharad Pawar hailing him as India's next generation leader.

In addition to his batting pyrotechnics and his reassuring presence behind the stumps, Dhoni's love for fast bikes and his flowing tresses added to his star stature and the youngster was chosen as MTV Youth Icon.