Process, Trust, Clarity - How MS Dhoni Turns Things Around As Captain

Three ICC Trophies, 4 Indian Premier League titles and many more records as captain, Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni has won it all. But how does he do it? Here's a close look at his leadership style.

Source: Twitter

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain MS Dhoni enjoys a cult status among his fans. His sharp cricketing brain, his street smartness, and calm demeanour as well as several titles with India and CSK has helped build this status. While he is surely a great captain, social media will tell you that there has been never been a sharper brain and braver leader like him in Indian cricket before. This is an opinion one may agree or differ with. Social media thrives on it. But what are the facts? They are the number of trophies he has won as captain. No Indian captain has been able to win as many as him. He has surely enjoyed good backing even during some tough periods as captain but he delivered the goods too.

How does MSD do it? Winning titles, making champion teams. Dhoni does not have a magic wand. He is not merely 'lucky' either. One cannot really know what goes behind the scene but watching him over the years, two things that may have worked for Dhoni are: Immense backing and his uncomplicated leadership style. 

#CSK bowlers today bowled 13 wides and 3 no balls against #LSG and Captain @msdhoni, in his inimitable style, had this to say. __#TATAIPL | #CSKvLSG pic.twitter.com/p6xRqaZCiK — IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 3, 2023

Dhoni's leadership style

Lets's talk about this style of his leadership. His captaincy is based on a simple principle: Trust the process, back your players and let them know what you feel about them and their performances. He is not someone who gives long speeches in the dressing room as told by the likes of Suresh Raina and R Ashwin. He is not yelling at players in the dressing room either or patting their backs all the time. In the mad race to get the matchups right in T20 cricket, he still does not sit in front of the laptop screens to check who plays whom better. He is not much into numbers.

Dhoni's communication is more subtle and his picks are based on gut feeling. If Dhoni feels, this particular playing 11 is a winning combination, the data analyst in the team cannot do much about it. You sense that when CSK pick their squad at the auction table. They are never after big names but pick players who they feel fit into scheme of things. He may not get things right immediately but you know he eventually will.

Process: the first important element of Dhoni's captaincy

'Get the process right, result will take care of itself', these Dhoni words are often spoken at the post match presentation ceremonies. He trusts a lot on what goes on at the back end. He also backs his players to deliver. As India captain, he stuck with Rohit Sharma despite trolls attacking him. He continued to play Ravindra Jadeja in the XI even if he got smashed for runs and gave poor returns with the bat. His constant backing in their abilities has resulted into both of them becoming an all-format player for India. 

Dhoni's faith in his players is his biggest strength

In CSK's second match of IPL 2023 against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), the same trust was there to be seen again. Youngsters Tushar Deshpande, Rajvardhan Hangargekar bowled the last 3 overs of the innings. They needed to defend 44 off the 18 balls. CSK had failed to close the game in the death overs vs Gujarat Titans in their opening match.

The senior pro Deepak Chahar was not given the duty to bowl the penultimate over this time. Deshpande and Hangargekar kept bowling extras and overstepped a few times too. It frustrated Dhoni as a second defeat seemed not too far. But his faith in them did not shake. He could have turned to Ben Stokes to bowl the 18th or the 19th over of the innings but he stuck to Deshpande and Hangargekar to do the job. In the end, despite some terribly poor deliveries, the duo got CSK home. 

Ever expanding Yellove for these two! _#WhistlePodu _ @imjadeja @msdhoni pic.twitter.com/dv5Yd1kbkE — Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) April 7, 2023

The result was not in Dhoni's hands. Two more bad balls and CSK could have been sitting with two losses in two games. But more than winning, it was important to create match winners of tomorrow for CSK and Dhoni did just that by giving the two young pacers the stage to perform and a moment to win. 

Clarity of thought in CSK captain's leadership

After this, comes Dhoni's last and important element of captaincy: clarity. Dhoni, in his post-match thoughts after the LSG win, did not mince words on the fast bowling display. His pacers had just won him the match but MS did not use the recent success to hide their weaknesses. This trait is something which is missing in Indian captains these days. Dhoni in typical Dhoni style cracked a joke and made his point too. 

"Fast bowling we need to slightly improve. Need to bowl according to the conditions. What is important is to keep an eye as to what the opposition bowlers are doing. One more thing is they'll have to bowl no no-balls or extra wides. Or they'll have to play under a new captain. It will be my second warning and then I'll be off," said Dhoni right after he game while speaking to the broadcasters.

In probably his last stint in IPL, Dhoni is doing the same things he did way back in 2007 as captain. Trusting the process, backing the players he has chosen and keeping things simple. It won't change in at least the remaining 12 games this season.