It was recently revealed by the former Indian coach Lalchand Rajput that Rahul Dravid, the skipper during the 2007 T20 World Cup, stopped players like Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly from playing despite them being more experienced.
Rajput and Indranil Basu had a live chat on Facebook and revealed how during the time, most senior players would give chances to the younger ones to go and play cricket under MS Dhoni who was the new captain. This led to India winning the tournament, and the world got to see some budding talent such as Rohit Sharma.
“Yes, it is true. Rahul Dravid was the captain in England, and some players came directly from England to Johannesburg (for the T20 World Cup), so they said let us give an opportunity to the youngsters. But after winning the World Cup, they must have repented it because Sachin always kept on telling me that I am playing for so many years, and I have still not won the World Cup.”
Lalchand Rajput
2007 T20 World Cup was the first time MS Dhoni lead the team, and it was also the first time when the world could see his fantastic leadership even during stressful times. MS Dhoni lead the team to victory during the tournament with his brilliant decision-making skills. Lalchand Rajput remembers himself assessing MS Dhoni’s growth and abilities. He said that he always believed MS Dhoni would turn out to be one of the most successful Indian cricket team captains.
Lalchand Rajput also said that MS Dhoni was like a mixture of both Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. During the match, he was always thinking and stayed aware of the future actions of the opponents. He said that Dhoni imbibed both the captains and their qualities in his leadership technique, where he stayed calm even during crunch moments and made great decisions even under pressure. He also hyped up the players to give their best all the time.
“Ganguly used to give players the confidence, and he was the one who changed the mentality of the Indian team, so I think that carried forward with Dhoni because even he gave opportunities to players and if he saw potential in someone he used to give him ample opportunities. Dhoni will never show any evasive action on the ground, and that helped the players in giving their best.”
Comparing MS Dhoni to Ganguly, Rajput says
