'He trusted his...': KL Rahul decodes legendary captain MS Dhoni's success

Team India batter KL Rahul lauded legendary captain MS Dhoni and decoded his success. In a recent interaction, Rahul spoke at length about Dhoni's greatness and as a captain and revealed the reason behind his staggering success. Under Dhoni, India won all three major ICC titles, attained the No. 1 Test team ranking for the first time whereas he has also led the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to four IPL and two Champions League (CLT20) trophies.

“MS Dhoni was my first captain. I've seen how he has handled the team, the calmness and the things that he does behind the scenes. Building the relationship with each person is something I've learnt from him. You need to build a relationship where these boys will fight for you, and with you,” Rahul told YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia, more commonly known asBeerBiceps.

'Every cricket lover's dream to be in the dressing room and be captained by MS Dhoni'

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The versatile Indian batter Rahul further opined, "I've realised much later, once when he retired and now he's not part of dressing room, I realised the presence of that man and the greatness that was a part of him. It's probably every cricket lover's dream to be in the dressing room and be captained by MS Dhoni. He's very simple in his approach, what you see is what you get. Even on the field, he is very calm. It's not just that he's being that way. He's very balanced in everything that he does."

"He has ways of building a relationship with each person. The bond that he creates... he has his own way. And he will know what's happening with each individual, personally and in his game. He knows everything about everybody, and that's what made him such a great leader."

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“He said this to me a lot of times... trust your gut as a captain. That's something he did, as a leader and as a person in general. The first thought that you get, you always question it, but he never questioned it. If he had a gut feeling about a certain thing, he would never try to question it or second-guess it. He did it, whether it went well or didn't go well. That's what helped him in a lot of ways. That's why he was unorthodox in a lot of ways, people didn't understand at the time but he trusted his gut feeling. That's why he got results too,” Rahul added.

At present, Rahul is out of cricketing action after suffering an injury in IPL 2023. His franchise Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) are close to attaining a playoff berth whereas Dhoni-led CSK are a spot above Lucknow, in the second position, and also aiming to finish in the top-two to feature in Qualifier 1 of IPL 2023 playoffs.

At 41, Dhoni continues to be a huge source of inspiration for cricketers around the globe due to his unorthodox wicketkeeping, finishing skills, captaincy and overall contribution to Indian cricket. It is widely speculated that Dhoni is playing his last IPL season and will retire after the ongoing edition.