No rocket science in captaincy, make sure every player know their roles, reveals MS Dhoni

MS Dhoni has always been a vital cog in the Chennai Super Kings’ wheel and this year hasn’t been any different. After staying away from the league for two years owing to the 2013 spot-fixing scandal Dhoni led the side with example scoring 455 runs at an amazing strike rate of 150.66. Along with his impressive form that has helped CSK finish the matches quite wonderfully, his leadership skills have also been impactful. This season has been a testament to the revival of Dhoni as a player and as a leader. 

A day before the final, Dhoni had mentioned that he was happy his team could play at least one game in front of its loyal fans in Chennai. The yellow army stayed a huge part of CSK' season as they backed their captain regardless of the venue, and in the end, the team repaid the faith. Dhoni finally opened up about his thoughts on captaincy and what was the reason behind success.

"It's a lot of things that go along with it - communication is a big one, and defining roles and giving players clear directions as to what we expect from them. Buying them in the first place, buying them with real purpose. Buying character. Rayudu is a good example. I felt there was more to get from Rayudu. Again he was up and down the orders and in and out of teams. He had the skill sets and it's something I valued over time. So I wanted him in my side and to slot him in somewhere, and MS was open about batting him top of the order which was successful, also in the middle order,” observed Dhoni.

“Kedar Jadhav is another who was flexible, but who we lost, another hurdle we overcame together. But it's just putting a lot of pieces together. It's a lot of respect, it's the way we treat our players. And a lot of communication as well. It is not rocket science, but looking after little things and making sure that every player in the squad is clear on where they are going for the two months," he added.

Talking about the campaign CSK head coach Stephen Fleming also acknowledged the fact that the numerable injury concerns and change of home ground had made it tough during the IPL. However, the team panic in those situations and were able to hold things together.

"I think we dealt with a lot of adversity really calmly and that comes with leadership. I will admit moving from Chennai had quite an impact given when we sat at the auction table picking a team to play in Chennai conditions. We had to scramble through the year to try and find a combination. We made more changes to the team that we usually would. We suddenly became a seaming based side with a little bit of spin. It is quite a bit of turnaround when you place your strategy to be a slow team with good players of spin.”