Over the last two years, there were days when Team India’s GenerationNext would gather around in their hotel rooms on tour, wonder aloud when their big moment would come, and the leader of the pack, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, would always say, “Don’t worry, hamara time bhi aayega.”

He has the charisma, says Ravi Shastri. You can see that the whole team looks up towards him on the field, says Sunil Gavaskar. And speaking to The Indian Express from Johannesburg, chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar sums it all up: “He has all the good qualities of a captain, he is calm under pressure, he backs his decisions, and he is not afraid to take risks.”

But what’s really been the defining shade of India’s new one-day captain is the lack of fear, the wealth of self-belief, this simple credo: reputations don’t count, all that matters is confidence; the first man who raises his hand will get the job. He’s a captain, whose no-nonsense attitude has the potential to redefine the bizarrely whimsical way in which India has been picking its final XI, and playing its cricket so far. He’s a captain who has left his fingerprints on the hearts of every member of his team, young and old: prints that say, no fear.

Really, it’s not about smalltown India any longer, it’s about big-time confidence. Consider this:

When Yuvraj Singh, two days after that six-sixes over, was not sure about his left elbow just minutes before the next match against South Africa, what did Dhoni do? He had no fear, didn’t waste much time in persuasion, he simply called in Dinesh Kaarthick.

... contd.