Mahendra Singh Dhoni would have gone the same way on Tuesday had he eventually not been goaded into sharing mundane thoughts on what by all accounts ought to be the greatest day yet of his cricketing career.
"I want to concentrate on Twenty20 cricket," was Dhoni's refrain when team manager Sunil Dev carried a request from journalists after the captain-designate skipped the pre-match press conference. Finally, after several minutes of persuasion from certain members of the media, he opted to take questions. Not the ideal way to start a captaincy stint, for sure.
"It feels very good," Dhoni remarked when he, at last, deigned to speak.
"I was captain of the Twenty20 side, now I am captain of the one-day team for 12 matches. The Twenty20 games here are important, as will be the coming series against Australia and Pakistan. It is critical for the team. It has been a long tour of England and here, and it will be nice to play some games at home. It is vital for us to perform well in those matches."
Dhoni was asked if, given that he is less than three years old in international cricket, he expected the captaincy to come his way this early. "I never expected to play for India, so I didn't expect the captaincy either. Captainship was not an issue for me at all. I just wanted to play cricket and enjoy it."
High pressure job
The 26-year-old acknowledged that the captaincy of the Indian team was one of the most high pressure jobs in world cricket. "It serious is, I am telling you. Hopefully I will have the smile," he remarked. "I don't know how I will react to it, though. If the team does well, nobody bothers you. The main thing, the motto, should be to do well. In every match."
There are three former captains in his one-day squad, to start with. Asked what his approach would be, he replied, "I just heard the news in the afternoon and haven't had the time to reflect on that since I am preparing for the games against England and South Africa here. That is crucial for us.
“Then, there is a gap of three or four days and that is when I will think about it. I think I said something similar when I was coming from England — I had just two or three days before the Twenty20 World Cup. It is the same over here. We have to finish this tournament before I think of the one-day internationals."