There’s a reason why MSD is one of the most loved captains team India ever had. Players used to love and respect him. No just because of his skills and performance, but because of his broad mindedness. He used to give each and every player a fair chance before taking any decision regarding their place in the team. Especially when it comes to decisions which might affect their careers in a bad way, MSD used to be very fair.
Sometimes he even gave chances to the players who ended up being partly blamed behind India losing that game. But today some of those players are an integral and very important part of the national team. It wouldn’t have happened if MSD was impulsive at that moment and removed them from the team because of their one bad performance.
These are some of the players MSD supported even when their performance wasn’t up to the mark:
1. Rohit Sharma
Rohit was one of the most consistent players when his career started. The entire team used to count on him when things went wrong. He mostly used to bat in the middle order as India’s top order was pretty decided. Thus Rohit used to bat as the number 5 or 6, he used to toss in between those two.
When Gambhir and Sehwag lost their place in the ODI lineups. Rohit got promoted to the first line up order in the ICC champion Trophy 2013. Once that happened, Rohit Sharma has been breaking records and pulling off impressive scores.
2. Ravindra Jadeja
Jadeja was consistent but not a good performer during the beginning of his career. Dhoni alway trusted him and counted on his performance. Even during the ODI’s Jadeja played as the first and last resort for India.
Jadeja played as the left arm spinner for team India since Dhoni always had his faith in him. But once Dhoni resigned from his captainship, Jadeja was dropped from the ODI line ups.
3. Ishant Sharma
Ishant is now the spearhead of the Indian team during the test attacks. But at times he obviously wast able to show off his skills and justify the fact that he’s capable of playing fantabulously. Since Dhoni kept faith and gave him chances, he gradually started showing off his actual skill-set.
Ishant is one of the fast bowlers in team India. Though most of his best matches are under Virat. But obviously he wouldn’t have reached the place without getting backed by Dhoni and that’s for sure.
4. Suresh Raina
From going through tough phases where people lost hopes from him, to being one of the most prominent players in the team. Dhoni always had his utmost faith in Raina. Despite his bad performance at times, Raina was always backed by Dhoni.
To be fair, Raina did pay back Dhoni for this by playing off really well during some matches.
5. Shikhar Dhawan
Shikhar Dhawan had a difficult time managing during the test matches and we are the living proof of seeing that too. He did get a few hundreds during test matches, but struggling was way too much for him. But Dhoni being Dhoni always gave him a fair shot,but he’s not in the line ups anymore.
