During his time with the national team, MS Dhoni gave India many moments that seemed prophetic. Like, they are going to lead to something bigger, which they often did. Much like his life. It was all meant to be

In a thread posted by The Random Cricket Photos Guy, we see how Dhoni booked a seat in the India squad, and how much the universe conspired to make it happen. 

So, let’s roll back to 2003 when Dhoni was not having a great season at the Ranji Trophy while playing for Bihar. He had scored 214 runs in the entire tournament at a poor average of 26. Meanwhile, another young batter-wicketkeeper, Dinesh Karthik, seemed to be doing everything right. 

However, Dhoni redeemed himself in Deodar Trophy, returning with good batting figures. Little did he know, though, that was going to happen over the course of 2 months. 

The national team had a wicket-keeper crisis as Dravid was no longer up to the job, and Parthiv Patel, his successor, was not quite performing as well as expected. The Australia tour was not good for Parthiv and it was becoming a matter of concern.

But Parthiv, too, redeemed himself in the Pakistan series. Meanwhile, DK was emerging as one of India’s biggest talents in the U-19s. 

He played really well in the World Cup and it seemed like if there was ever an opening in the national squad, it will go to him.  

He was named in the India A Squad for Zimbabwe, along with MS Dhoni, who wasn’t a part of the bigger picture for the selectors at this point. 

Now, Karthik gave an amazing performance, again and was given a chance to represent the country in the Europe tour that consisted of 2 ODI tournaments, including the Champions Trophy.

And this is when it gets REALLY interesting. While Karthik went for national duty, Dhoni was made the official wicket-keeper of the India A-Team that was going to play Pakistan and Kenya. 

MS shined in the tournament. As for DK, he could play only 2 matches in the whole tour, so there wasn’t much chance to showcase his talent. 

The whole tour was pretty much a nightmare for India as we lost every series, and then got evicted from the Champions Trophy.

Ultimately, when the BCCI had to choose a keeper for the Bangaldesh tour at the end of 2004, they gave Dhoni the gloves for ODIs, and Karthik, Tests.

The rest is history.

All these years later, when all the events are put together, it sort of creates a map of events that one can look at and go, “That was a bigger plan, wasn’t it?”. It was indeed. 

MS Dhoni, 3 years after his debut, was promoted to the role of the captain, and brought home the debut T20 World Cup trophy. He never had to look back again. Though I do think that maybe, he revisits that map sometimes. 

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