Happy Birthday MS Dhoni: The day world stood up and took notice

It was a sunny afternoon, we all were glued to our TV screens as India were playing the mighty Sri Lankans. They were touring us and had their best team in place for this tournament. Their playing XI card featured some of the most fearsome names like Kumar Sangakkara, Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawardene, Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan. It was a daunting task to even face this champion team but India was playing in their own country and they had already won the first two matches of this 7-match marathon ODI series. 

Sri Lankans were looking for a victory here and Jaipur’s slow pitch was an ideal place for them to score one. At this time, Indian Cricket team was also searching for a reliable wicketkeeper. When Nayan Mongia hung his gloves and announced his retirement, the Indian Team had no one on the bench to replace him. Mongia was an average wicketkeeper but his inputs with the bat made him special. He was a pinch-hitter and used to gather a lot of runs in the slog overs. 

Indian team wanted someone like him. 

Saba Karim took the baton but an unfortunate injury ended his career prematurely. Indian team tried a few names - Samir Dighe, Ajay Ratra, Vijay Dahiya, Parthiv Patel and Dinesh Karthik. All of these players had one thing in common - they had a good domestic record with the bat but they did a pretty average show behind the wickets. The problem was, they were competing with Rahul Dravid as he was playing the role of a part-time wicketkeeper in all ODI matches and no full-time wicketkeeper could match with his batting skills. 

Came in Dhoni, long hair, straight face and a cool demeanour. This was a tournament for everybody except MS, for him, this tournament was the test of his life. He had a long domestic career behind him but never got a chance to play for India as there was no slot available for a wicketkeeper in the Indian team. 

But this was his chance, He told me during an interview while they were promoting the film "MS Dhoni - The Untold Story" in 2016 that he was not worried but fully aware of what would happen if he did not score in this series. "They (BCCI) were changing wicketkeepers like extras and I had this one opportunity with me. I didn’t want to fail there." 

It was a special day. Sri Lankans were looking for their first win of the tournament and Sangakkara’s 138 off 147 balls set all things right for them. Jayawardene chipped in with a nifty 71 off 70 and Lankans posted 298 on the scoreboard. 

Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium was packed with the crowd and people were glued to their TV sets as Indian openers Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar were about to start the second innings. 298 looked like a cakewalk as 'Master Blaster' and 'Multan ka Sultan' took their stand on the pitch. We were thinking that Sachin will score another century today but he didn’t. Vaas made him nick a fast-moving outswinger and Sangakkara didn’t make a mistake behind the stumps. Sachin started his walk back to the pavilion and the whole stadium stood dejected, as if, this was the end of the match. 

It was a sunny afternoon and we were watching this whole thing on our television. Rahul Dravid was the next man in and we knew that now this match will progress slowly but Rahul didn’t come, someone else walked in, It was Dhoni!

My dad almost shouted, “Isko kahan bhej diya (why did they send him)?"

He had scored a few runs in the first match of the series and didn’t get a chance to bat in the second. Now, he was coming as the number three batsmen for the Indian cricket team. Nobody cheered him up as he took his stance in the middle of that ground. Sehwag told him nothing, he just came in and took his stance and it came to my mind that he will not last long. 

The most notable thing of his whole personality was those long wavy hair locks. No one had seen an Indian cricket player with this kind of a hairdo. Commentators started commenting about his hairstyle as they had nothing to say about his craft of cricket but then it happened. It was a run storm which hit the Lankans right there in Sawai Mansingh Stadium. Dhoni single-handedly blasted the formidable attack of Sri Lankan bowling.

He struck 15 boundaries and 10 towering sixes during his massive innings of 183 off 145 balls. Sri Lankan bowlers looked tiny in front of his charismatic batting and even the Sri Lankan supporters started cheering him up. I remember that day very clearly. Dhoni stole the spotlight from the likes of Sehwag, Dravid and Tendulkar and took India to a victory. 

It was not an easy match but he made it look easy. Sri Lanka was a tough team but they looked like a group of amateurs that day. 

That day, India’s search for their next wicketkeeper ended and my father said, this time firmly, “ye ladka kuch karega (this boy will do something)!"

That ‘ladka’ became the coolest captain Indian Cricket Team ever had and we won our second ICC World Cup in 2011, ending a drought of 23 long years. 

On his 39th birthday, we all remember that day fondly. But ae are also waiting for him to announce his retirement after a glorious career. He will call it a day and walk into the sunset like all the greats before him did. But I will always remember that day when it all started - It was a sunny afternoon and we all were thinking - “ye ladka kaun hai?”