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Business News/ News / India/  Dhoni’s dilemma: Mahi way or highway
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Dhoni’s dilemma: Mahi way or highway

The cool, calculated thinker in Dhoni faces his greatest challenge: planning a good exit. What are his options?
  • Some people close to Dhoni say he does have plans for the future, but cricket doesn’t feature too high among them. They don’t rule out cricket completely, though
  • A file photo of former India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. (Alamy)Premium
    A file photo of former India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. (Alamy)

    LONDON : Woh rote rote nahi jaayega (He won’t go away crying)." Kiran More isn’t talking about Mahendra Singh Dhoni literally shedding tears. He’s instead referring to the former India captain’s impassioned objectivity in deciding his own fate. Ironical, considering how most of the talk revolving around India’s untimely exit from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 last week was about whether the former India captain had tears in his eyes as he walked off after getting run-out in the semi-final.

    Was Dhoni actually crying because he had realized it was his final appearance in India colours? Or was he simply wincing and grimacing in pain, after having his thumb hit by a thunderbolt of a delivery from pacey Lockie Ferguson? Perhaps it was both. Perhaps it depends on what you were expecting or wanted to see.

    The fact is there was only pain. Extreme pain. So much so that Dhoni couldn’t even unfurl his right fist, as he gingerly shook his teammates’ hands with his left. If you watch the replay of that delivery—the one where Martin Guptill knocked India out with a direct hit from the deep square leg boundary—you can actually hear Dhoni screaming in pain as the ball strikes his glove. For those who did see tears, it was merely a willing suspension of disbelief. Because those around Dhoni vouch that it is only very rarely that the Indian cricketer with the most famous poker face in history lets his emotions get the better of him.

    “The only time I’ve ever seen M.S. (Dhoni) really get very emotional and actually cry was when one of his closest fauji friends passed away a few years ago," says one of Dhoni’s closest confidantes. Interestingly, there were a lot of tears within the Indian dressing room on that fateful night in Manchester last week. Sri Lankan throwdown specialist Nuwan Seneviratne was inconsolable. Australian physio Patrick Farhart was equally teary-eyed on what was his final day in the Indian dressing room. But people within the Indian camp reveal that the outpouring of emotions was as much for themselves as they were for Dhoni.

    You can read what you want to into that, but the fact is we’ll never know. That’s, after all, the enigma of M.S. Dhoni. You just never know. All logic would point at this being his end. Just two years shy of 40, with the next 50-over world cup still four years away, you would assume there is no incentive for him to continue. And More, a former India wicketkeeper, and the man who gave Dhoni his first break 15 years ago as the chief selector, feels the same.

    “Knowing M.S., the only reason he isn’t talking about his future now is because he doesn’t want it to overshadow any talk about the heroes for India at the world cup, whether it’s Rohit Sharma or Jasprit Bumrah. He doesn’t want the attention to shift towards him in any way. But I’m sure he’s made a decision, and he’ll be discussing it with the selectors soon," says More.

    Future plans

    Some close to him reveal that he does have plans for the future, but cricket doesn’t feature too high among them. They don’t rule it out completely though. Even they’re aware of the pitfalls of predicting Dhoni’s future on his behalf, especially when it’s about him leaving. They were of course spot on about his obsession with wanting to play the 2019 World Cup... an obsession which began in the summer of 2017 after an agonizing loss in the ICC Champions Trophy final to Pakistan. Back then, around Ranchi, they would speak of his new-found preference for grilled chicken over chicken butter masala. And the changes to his physical training, all directed towards keeping him in the best shape possible for England.

    That explains why Dhoni was at the world cup. How you judge his performance once he got there might well depend on which side of the fence you sit in the Dhoni debate. Did Dhoni’s inability to finish off run chases hurt the middle order more or was it the musical chairs that the selectors kept playing with the middle order positions that affected Dhoni the batsman. More is strongly of the opinion that it was the indecisiveness of the selectors with regards to finding a No. 4 that never let Dhoni play the way he wanted to.

    “A more settled batting line-up would have allowed M.S. to feel more confident about playing his natural game. And the biggest blunder came in the semi-final when they sent him at No. 7. Rishabh (Pant) would have never played that shot he did because M.S. wouldn’t have allowed him to do that. There was just too much uncertainty in that middle order," he says.

    Dhoni finished fourth amongst the highest run-getters for India, with 273 runs at an average of 45.50. He had a better average and a strike rate than K.L. Rahul, who went from No. 4 in the first two games to opening in the absence of injured Shikhar Dhawan. They are numbers which might have looked good in case India had won the world cup, but for those who believe Dhoni shouldn’t have found a place in the world cup squad to begin with, they aren’t very good. It wasn’t the runs though that bought him incessant criticism. It was his approach in run chases. There were those who questioned his tactics, even his intent, while not being able to get India even close to the finish line against England in Birmingham—the only match India lost in the group stage. He still did score 42 not out off 31 balls at a strike rate of 135.48 while Kedar Jadhav plodded away at the other end with 12 off 13 balls as India finished 31 runs short of chasing down 338. Jadhav didn’t play again in the tournament but it was Dhoni who copped most of the blame for India not “giving it their all" to win against England.

    What was surprising though was how everyone suddenly seemed surprise by Dhoni’s way, which was the same even when he was the best finisher in world cricket. It’s just that he’s reached a stage of his career where the final thrust, which he used to be a master at orchestrating, seems a step too far, more often than not, in big run chases. And Dhoni has been aware of that too, even seeking out the performance analyst of the erstwhile Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, Rising Pune Supergiant, to help rediscover his hitting prowess during the 2017 IPL. It was as much to do with his technique as it was to do with adjusting to the back issues, which made him quit Test cricket in 2014.

    While it seemed to have worked for him at times in the IPL where he needs to push his body only in short spurts, it’s become a problem in the 50-over format, where he has to start hitting after having spent a considerable amount of time at the crease.

    The semi-final

    His approach came for some flak in the losing cause against New Zealand in the semi-final too, but More argues that India wouldn’t have even got as close as they did if not for Dhoni. And the game did seem to be going according to the Dhoni mandate, especially after Ravindra Jadeja produced a game-changing cameo. With Jimmy Neesham set to bowl the last over, the game looked set to enter what some in his heyday would refer to as Dhoni Time—where it’s a shootout between him and the bowler. Guptill’s throw though ensured that we’ll never know.

    “Batting at No. 5 and 6 is the most difficult task in one-day cricket, and there was so much pressure and criticism coming his way, which I thought was uncalled for. It’s very easy to say all this from the commentary box. But how many of those who went after M.S. have actually batted at 5, 6 or 7 for India? It was rather unfair," says More.

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    More doesn’t believe Dhoni has overstayed his welcome in the Indian team and insists that he brings a lot more to the table than his batting and wicketkeeping skills. On that note, even Virat Kohli has regularly raved about the influence that his predecessor still has on every game in terms of field positions and where the two wrist spinners are bowling. A couple of West Indian players were quite flabbergasted with how Dhoni still leads the team on the field without the title when they visited India last year. “You see Virat out at deep midwicket and once the game enters the last 15 overs, it’s M.S. who runs the show," one had said after India managed to defend a score in a narrow-margin win.

    It was perhaps the first time in many years though that Dhoni’s wicketkeeping came under the scanner. And More agrees with it too, though he cites it being because of a back injury that must have been affecting him. “I have never seen him falling like the way he did while collecting a ball in front of him behind the stumps. I’ve also never seen him miss balls while standing back. It must have been a back issue. Even while moving to his left, you could see he was in discomfort," he says.

    Twilight of a champion

    The discomfort and the age factor is undeniable. Where does M.S. Dhoni go from here? The Indian cricket juggernaut of course doesn’t stop and the team will be in the Caribbean next month for a bunch of T20Is and ODIs. Most around him are confident he won’t be part of that squad and the “announcement" will come prior to that. But at 38, is Dhoni ready to walk away completely?

    In all likelihood, he will play another season for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL next year. And if he does, the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia will be less than six months away. Would that be tempting enough for him to become a T20I specialist, and therefore allow him a very light international cricket schedule over the next 15 or so months? More doesn’t think so. “Woh waisa bhookha nahi hai (He’s never had that kind of greed). I don’t see him carrying on randomly if he doesn’t think there’s still something left for him to contribute to Indian cricket." The answer will arrive in a BCCI press release at some point, and probably very soon.

    Bharat Sundaresan is a sports writer and author of The Dhoni Touch.


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    Published: 19 Jul 2019, 12:08 AM IST
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