MS Dhoni
Former Indian coach and presently the head coach of Zimbabwean national team, Lalchand Rajput, on Monday recalled India's victorious journey to 2007 World T20 glory in South Africa. Rajput, on recalling, revealed then-skipper MS Dhoni's motto that inspired India to their first silverware in a multi-team tournament since 1983 World Cup.
Rajput revealed that Dhoni believed in "don't take tension, give tension" policy and hence urged his teammates to stay away from the noise outside and focus only on their strengths.
"As a team, in a dressing room, the atmosphere should be very good. You should motivate players, and the players should not feel the pressure," said Rajput during a live chat with Sportskeeda.
"Our theme during the World Cup was 'don't take tension, give tension'. Dhoni really believed in the motto that people will talk things, but we need to focus on our strengths, and don't have to worry about what others are saying." Rajput added.
India were slotted in Group D alongside Scotland and arch-rivals Pakistan. While their opener against Scotland was abandoned due to rain, they defeated their nemesis via bowl-out to proceed to the Super 8s.
In the second stage, they were slotted in alongside New Zealand, South Africa and England. While they lost to New Zealand by 10 runs, India bounced back strong to win the other two and hence booked their seat for the semifinals.
Yuvraj Singh's 30-ball 70 and Sreensath's 2/14 guided India to a 15 run win against Australia in the second semifinal, before they defeated Pakistan in the blockbuster summit clash.
Talking about Dhoni's captaincy, Rajput said, "To be honest, he was very very calm. He used to think two steps ahead because a captain has to make a decision on the ground... One thing I liked about him was that he was a thinking captain," Rajput said.
"He seemed to me like a mixture of Ganguly and Rahul Dravid... Ganguly was very very aggressive and thinking but was positive and thinking."
