Marred by scandal and a spate of on-field reverses, India's one-day captain managed to convert a struggling team into World Cup contenders, but couldn't take them all the way

Dhoni with Ravi Shastri during a training session in Melbourne.Sitting in his suite overlooking Sydney's Harbour Bridge, Mahendra Singh Dhoni absent-mindedly fidgets with his video game controller. From his window, he can see dark clouds enveloping the city, slowly turning into a thunderstorm, and soon leaving behind a trail of lightning. Such tumultuous, mercurial changes in weather are not new to Dhoni. Dark clouds followed by lightning, innuendo followed by allegations-Dhoni has seen it all. Suddenly the vision of an unforgettable last-ball six at the Wankhede Stadium four years ago flashes across his mind, followed quickly by a hazy image of the Sydney Cricket Ground, where his team was to play the semi-final of the 2015 World Cup two days later against Australia. What does destiny have in store for the man who had lost his Midas touch, only to miraculously regain it in the biggest tournament of them all?Today, as Team India stands eliminated from the tournament, beaten by a surging home side in front of a sea of fans in blue shirts enduring "Come on, Aussie, come on" chants, it would be easy to write Dhoni's epitaph. But, in truth, what India's one-day captain has achieved by taking his team from 85 days of trauma Down Under-where they did not win a single match in any format-to the semi-finals of the World Cup with an unbeaten record in the tournament until their eventual demise, has been nothing short of sensational.It may well be his last World Cup, and perhaps among his last few games as India's indomitable skipper, but Dhoni has left an indelible mark on India's one-day game, setting benchmark that all future and past captains will be judged by.So how did Dhoni, battered on the field and troubled off it following the Mudgal Commission's damning report into betting and match-fixing involving his IPL team, Chennai Super Kings, get his groove back? Was his redemption song written by the strokes of some magic pen, or was it a carefully crafted master plan?Sources in the Indian team point to the birth of his daughter, Ziva, barely 10 days before the World Cup, as the most significant moment in the Dhoni and Team India revival story. That morning, his colleagues had expected Dhoni to tell them that he would make a quick trip back home to cradle his daughter in his arms. Instead, Dhoni walked in and said he would stay in Australia to help sort out the mess they were all in. The leader had risen. Suddenly, the goal was clear."We knew the results couldn't get possibly any worse once the World Cup began, but the team was hesitant, uncertain; almost petrified," a dressing-room insider confesses. "But when Dhoni decided that even his greatest personal happiness couldn't come in the way of going all out in the World Cup, the pieces started falling into place. Something changed that day."The road to cricketing recovery had apparently been charted towards the end of the four-Test series, which India lost 2-0. Although the results in the tri-series against Australia and England were even poorer, Dhoni didn't panic. Coach Duncan Fletcher began working on the batting stance of most batsmen, including the in-form Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane. They now stand on these pitches with their legs further apart, the bat tapping midway between their stretched feet for better balance, rather than the conventional upright stance with the bat behind the right foot. Team Director Ravi Shastri, never shy of using his bombastic turn of phrase, used his equation with bowling coach Bharat Arun, who had played U19 cricket and a couple of Tests with Shastri, to work with him on the weaknesses of the Indian pacers during the Tests and ODIs.During these technical adjustments, Dhoni just let them be. But critical changes in mindset began when the skipper took the fast bowlers to a boot camp 200 km from Adelaide after the team failed to make the final of the tri-series. There, he asked them to set new goals for themselves before the World Cup. Over severe brainstorming sessions, it was concluded that the fast bowlers were either bowling too short or too full. In the next few days, they began concentrating on hitting a three-quarter length-first at a moderate pace and then faster, until they were all clocking upwards of 140 kilometres per hour with relative ease. Dhoni then worked with them on the strengths and weaknesses of rival batsmen, and a few were picked from every team as potential targets for surprise short-pitch deliveries.The skipper had, meanwhile, asked Ravichandran Ashwin to try bowling slower through the air and Shastri's experience as a spinner helped matters further. Shastri took Ashwin to former Australian off-spinner Bruce Yardley, who suggested he should get more revolutions on the ball to be successful in these conditions. Soon, the results began to show-first in the nets and then in the early matches of the Word Cup. The three main fast bowlers, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav and Mohit Sharma, grabbed 48 wickets between them in the tournament, and Ashwin added 13 more while giving away a fairly economical 4.28 runs per over considering how high-scoring the tournament has been."I never expected India to shift gears so well and so soon. Dhoni is a very clever captain and works the magic on his players in ICC tournaments. He is like Harry Potter," former England skipper Michael Vaughan said in Sydney.His former teammate Kevin Pietersen concurred that most of Team India's transformation was Dhoni's doing. "He's willing to wait for opportunities and set up the kill. He did the right thing by playing five specialist bowlers, and he had the confidence to call them to bowl at any given stage," Pietersen, in Australia as a commentator, told india today. Sourav Ganguly, shrewd and successful, and the captain whose spirit of never giving up Dhoni seems to have imbibed, rates Dhoni as a better leader in one-day internationals than he was. "He has often been off-the-ball in Test matches, but in the shorter format, Dhoni is always magnetic," Ganguly says. "Playing Australia-even losing to them all through the summer-helped the Indians become tougher. Dhoni was intelligent because he held on to the group and ensured they reflected on those defeats and learnt from them. Giving up Test captaincy gave him fresh oxygen in the World Cup."It hasn't been easy though. After former BCCI chief N.Srinivasan's removal following the Mudgal Commission report, in which Dhoni allegedly did not give a clear account of the events, he had gone into a shell. His links with Srinivasan ran deep, both through the IPL and through his company India Cements, in which Dhoni is a vice-president. So the assumption that Dhoni may have benefitted from the relationship was not entirely unfounded, and there are several questions that he still needs to answer to clear the air on that front. Under pressure, he not only cut himself off from India's travelling media, it seemed he almost began resenting their interest in the team's affairs.With the World Cup just around the corner, it was evident that his performance in Test cricket was waning. Sensing that the selectors, and the team management now under the boisterous Shastri, wanted a fresh approach that he could not provide, Dhoni suddenly retired from the format with the series lost but the Sydney Test still to be played.It was assumed that it was the end of the road for Dhoni once Virat Kohli had been fast-tracked into the hot seat. However, it is the chemistry between the two that served the team well once the World Cup began. Pitched as rivals by those outside the inner circle, Dhoni and Kohli have gone out of their way to reach out to each other during this tournament. They have often been seen walking down the streets, going for meals together, and even buying video game consoles before the game against West Indies in Perth on March 6. Now the Test captain, Kohli threw his weight behind Dhoni as the undisputed leader in this tournament.As a captain, as a player, and as a man, Dhoni has always been an enigma. Clearly disinterested in Test cricket in the latter half of his career, India kept losing one overseas series after another under him. But in the one-day format, and particularly in big ICC tournaments, Dhoni's love for silverware continues to convert him into a man possessed. Though he never lets his emotions show on his face, India won the 2013 Champions Trophy and played in the final of the 2014 World T20. His sweetest moment, of course, was that World Cup final night at the Wankhede in 2011. "He has big-match temperament," says former England skipper Nasser Hussain. "He does a wonderful job of not letting the team lose focus when it matters the most."In 2015 too Dhoni got India fairly close against all odds. But some things are not meant to be. Even for the man with the Midas touch.Follow the writers on Twitter @vikrantgupta73 and @_kunal_pradhanTo read more, get your copy of India Today here.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Mar 26, 2015 23:56 IST--- ENDS ---

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Marred by scandal and a spate of on-field reverses, India's one-day captain managed to convert a struggling team into World Cup contenders, but couldn't take them all the way

Marred by scandal and a spate of on-field reverses, India's one-day captain managed to convert a struggling team into World Cup contenders, but couldn't take them all the way.

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