“Dhoni’s gutsy feeling has always done wonders for Indian Cricket,” says the former Indian Captain Sunil Gavaskar. He believes at times it is hard to understand the logic behind the decision of Mahendra Singh Dhoni but the point is that it works out almost every time for him. He was impressed with the tactics that Captain Cool played in the finals which robbed the hearts of the million fans across the globe.
The Little Master was quoted by The Hindu saying, "Some of his decisions are hard to understand by cricketing logic but they come off. And I think that is what gut instinct is all about. Captains need to go by their instinct. The beauty about Mahendra Singh Dhoni is that he has a fantastic gut instinct and he acts on it. More often than not, it works for him."
Dhoni made the surprising decision of letting Ishant Sharma bowl the 18th over in the final against England who went for considerable amount of runs till that over. Gavaskar was quoted saying, "In the flow of the tournament, Ishant had the knack of picking up wickets after bowling a couple of bad deliveries. That is exactly what happened. He was hit for a six, bowled two wides and then he took wickets of consecutive deliveries."
Ishant was responsible for the dismissals of Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara at a crucial juncture, leading to a collapse. Decisions like this have been questioned on several occasions when they have failed to come off but Gavaskar says he does not understand the need to question Dhoni's motives. He was quoted by Hindustan Times saying, "Here is a captain who has brought glory to the country in all formats and yet, there have been so many allegations levelled at him. I think it has hurt him. We as cricketers make a lot of sacrifices for our country and try to do our best."