Dhoni phenomenon: genius, luck, or magic?

After a great run in New Zealand, India had their first two poor days in Napier when MS Dhoni was forced to sit out of the match due to back spasms, and at a time when John Buchanan is advocating more power to coaches, the inexplicable influence of Dhoni’s captaincy must be reinvigorating for skippers around the world, writes Kunal Pradhan in the Indian Express.

Slowly, evidence is emerging to suggest that somehow the life gets sucked out of the team when Dhoni is not on the field. It’s not about field placements and bowling changes, there’s something more, something intangible, that seems to walk off with him.

And the really strange part is that there aren’t really any obvious signs of his genius when he is marshalling his resources in the middle. There are no famous trump-card decisions to be quoted — nothing like Don Bradman inverting the line-up on a wet pitch, Martin Crowe opening the bowling with a spinner, Clive Lloyd allowing Geoff Boycott to bat on, or Sourav Ganguly making Steve Waugh wait for the toss.