Happy Birthday MS Dhoni: 5 Bold Decisions By Mahi That Proved Game-Changer For Indian Cricket

Former Indian cricket team skipper MS Dhoni turned 40 on Wednesday. Dhoni, popularly called Mahi by his fans, powered the national cricket team to a different level with his bold decisions and captaincy. MS Dhoni is the first captain in the world, who has won the ODI World Cup, T20 World Cup and Champions Trophy as a captain. Photo Courtesy: AFP

Captain Cool has proved on many occasions how his bold decisions are highly effective and proved to be a game-changer. His decisions not only surprised everyone, but also led team India to some mind-blowing victories on big occasions. On MS Dhoni's 40th birthday, let's take a look at 5 bold decisions of Mahi. Photo Courtesy: AFP

2007 T20 World Cup: Giving Joginder Sharma the last over in the final!: In the final of the ICC T20 World Cup held for the first time in 2007, veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh had one over left, but Dhoni handed the last over to Joginder Sharma. At that time the captain of the Pakistan team, Misbah-ul-Haq, was playing 37 runs off 35 balls. Dhoni made a bold decision at this point in the match as Misbah had hit three sixes in Harbhajan's 17th over. Joginder starts the over with a wide. Later Misbah hit a paddle shot and was caught by Sreesanth. India created history by winning the first T20 World Cup in Johannesburg. Photo Courtesy: AFP

Dropping senior players Ganguly-Dravid: In Australia in 2008, Dhoni dropped senior players like Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid in the Australia-Sri Lanka tri-series. Everyone was surprised by this decision of Dhoni to exclude this successful and senior pair from ODIs. When BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah was asked the reason for this, his reply was that the team management were focused on fielding. India created history by winning the tri-series for the first time in Australia under Mahi's captaincy. Photo Courtesy: AFP

Promoted himself to number five in the 2011 World Cup: India were chasing 275 against Sri Lanka in the 2011 final. After Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli got out, India needed 161 more runs to win. Everyone expected that in-form Yuvraj Singh would be sent out to bat, but MS Dhoni came out to bat at number five at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Dhoni scored an unbeaten 91 to help India win the second World Cup. Photo Courtesy: AFP

Rotating 12-13 players in CB series in Australia: In 2008, Dhoni started rotating players for better fielders. In the Commonwealth Bank Series 2012, Dhoni rotated Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag continuously. Despite having a great batting record, these three players did not play together in the team. Dhoni kept rotating them continuously. However, Dhoni had to face criticism for this. Photo Courtesy: AFP

Asking Rohit Sharma to open for India: Rohit Sharma was included in the team in the 2007 T20 World Cup, but he could not perform consistently. In 2011, Dhoni was the first captain to use Rohit Sharma as opening batsman during India's tour of South Africa. Rohit scored only 29 runs in three innings. In 2013, Rohit was once again given the opportunity to open the innings and he scored 83 runs in Mohali. After this, Rohit never looked back and became the most explosive opening batsman in the world. The Mumbai-born is also the most successful captain in IPL history. Photo Courtesy: AFP