Mahendra Singh Dhoni may not have planned his cricketing career the way it’s panning out to be -- come to think of it, he didn’t even dream of becoming a cricketer in the first place -- but the wicketkeeper-batsman is certainly living a dream.
Ever since the Jharkhand player waltzed his way to stardom with a breathtaking assault on the Pakistani bowlers in the Visakhapatnam one-dayer some two years ago, Dhoni’s career graph has moved only in the upward direction. From cementing his place in both one-dayers and Tests to leading the side in the shorter version of the game, Dhoni has come a long way in a short time.
“When I started playing cricket, I never dreamt of playing for India,” said Dhoni a felicitation function here on Friday. “Then it was captaincy before going to the World Cup and now it’s winning the World Cup (Twenty20),” he added.
Dhoni attributed India’s success to determination in the team to win the Cup. “It was the determination of the team... Every member of the team wanted to win the Cup. Plus, we had no real pressure on us. That was the big difference,” explained Dhoni, who was presented with a golden bat.
The Indian captain said he was overwhelmed with the kind of response the team received on its arrival in Mumbai. “It was really amazing. We will all cherish it forever,” said Dhoni.
Yuvraj Singh agreed with his captain. “We always used to think like how it would it be when we come back home after winning the World Cup and to see so many people lined up to receive us on the streets.. it was really great,” said Yuvraj.
“It was a great win, there was a lot of energy among the guys. And to think that we won it without Rahul (Dravid), Sachin (Tendulkar) and Sourav (Ganguly), it was really special.”
The left-hander’s six-hitting ways in the tournament caught everyone’s imagination, especially the six sixes in a row off England’s Stuart Broad. The Punjab batsman admitted it was his way of redeeming himself for conceding five sixes in an over during England-India ODI series.
“It (hitting six sixes) feels great, especially after I got hit for five sixes,” said Yuvraj, who was also presented with a golden bat for hitting the longest six of the T20 tournament. Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Robin Uthappa, RP Singh and Rohit Sharma were also presented miniature golden bats.
