My role model

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the former captain of the Indian cricket team, has been quite a role model for me in the formative years of my life. He is considered as one of the sharpest cricketing minds. The way he used to manage the team in matches, during his tenure as a captain was just remarkable. He announced his retirement from international cricket this year. He was an active part of the Indian cricket team for more than fourteen years. This is a big achievement in itself for a sport like cricket in which age sometimes overpowers the desire to play for the team.

He came from a very humble background. I came to know about his life story through a film made on him by the name “M.S. Dhoni: The untold story”. He didn’t have much resources in his early days to support his cricket skills. So, he had to take up the job of a railway ticket collector. He had to overcome many such obstacles to finally play for India.

In the start of his career, he was quite an aggressive batsman. He was known for hitting big sixes, especially his helicopter shot. It was quite entertaining to watch him play, because at that time it was quite unconventional to see Indian batsmen play so aggressively. He even contributed as a wicket keeper. In 2007, he was given a chance to lead the team in the first ICC T20 world cup. We got a chance to see his brilliance as a captain in that tournament, in which he led the team to victory. He then went on to become the captain across all formats.

One of his greatest achievement was winning the 2011 ODI world cup. Memories of the final match still bring goosebumps. It was against Sri Lanka. They had set a respectable target to chase. India lost two early wickets. People had almost lost their hopes after the third wicket. In this pressure situation, M.S Dhoni promoted himself up the batting order. He stayed at the crease to score a total of 91 runs. He won the match for India with a six. That moment was quite an inspirational one for me. The way, he handled that situation is nothing less than a life lesson for me. Even after hitting that winning six he had calm on his face. But the nation just went crazy that night. India had won after 28 years.

He is not only known for his cricket skills, but also for his personality. He is popularly known as ‘Captain Cool’. He had a calm state of mind in all situations, whether favourable or unfavourable. He reacted to both victory and loss in the same way. For him, cricket was not only a physical sport, but a mind game as well, which was quite evident from how he used to set up the field as a wicket-keeper. Besides this, he acted as a mentor for many young players, who went to become an important part of the team.

I learnt many life lessons from M.S. Dhoni and that too in such an entertaining way. I wish to to attain a calm state of mind, just like him.