MS Dhoni birthday: Factor that made stylish keeper-batsman become 'Captain Cool' revealed

Former India cricket captain MS Dhoni celebrated his 39th birthday on Tuesday. The former India captain is one of the greatest captains to have graced the sport. MS Dhoni is known for his cool and calm demeanour on the field, which is also cited as one of the reasons behind his success. The right-handed batsman is extremely good at keeping his emotions in check, which has helped him immensely in crunch moments.

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However, in the past, MS Dhoni was actually known to be someone very expressive due to a close bunch of friends and family. Actually, there were two events that took place within the space of a few months in 2007, which left a lasting impact on MS Dhoni the captain and player. In April 2007, Dhoni was reportedly forced to stay in Delhi away from his house in Ranchi because it was being attacked by angry Indian fans after India's mortifying defeat in the 2007 ODI World Cup in West Indies.  

However, a few months later in September, when Dhoni came back from South Africa after guiding India to maiden T20 World Cup triumph, he once again had to stay away from home but this time because of the adulation and the mobbing. When he experienced these two contrasting incidents within a span of a few months, Dhoni confided in his friends that he couldn't afford to take what happened on the field seriously and be defined by it, as per a report in ESPNcricinfo.

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In the coming years, the CSK captain had become so good at keeping his emotions in check that sometimes it made many wonder if it was for real or not. In a conversation with ESPNCricinfo, Greg Chappell spoke about how MS Dhoni was actually an expressive man in personal life. Chappell revealed that they were in Jaipur, or possibly in Nagpur, and a friend of the family, a young woman, died. He added that he was touched by the way MS Dhoni reacted to that. Chappell opined that Dhoni was quite emotional, and not scared to show it. However, he said that it's different now and added that Dhoni now rations the time he gives to Indian cricket.

Former India cricketer Rahul Dravid, who captained him, played under him and also observed him as an outsider said that MS Dhoni had the ability to detach himself from the game deliberately. Dravid reckoned that he almost get the impression that MS Dhoni feels that if he thinks and plans too much, his mind will get cluttered. Dravid added that according to him, Dhoni doesn't want to understand the full weight of being the India captain. Dravid opined that Dhoni doesn't want to delve into those things and get bogged down unnecessarily.

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He further admitted that captaincy was a 24/7 job for him and the most worrisome part of captaining India was being responsible for so many different kinds of players. Dravid pointed out that previous captains were tense and one could sense the pressure they were under. But with Dhoni it is relaxed, which made others at ease automatically.

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IMAGE COURTESY: TWITTER/ DHONIISM