• Download mobile app
28 Mar 2024, Edition - 3180, Thursday

Trending Now

  • IPL 2024 begins with a bang. First contest between CSK and RCB.
  • Election commission allots mike symbol to Naam Thamizhar Katchi
  • AIADMK promises to urge for AIIMS in Coimbatore, in its election manifesto.
  • Ponmudi becomes higher education minister.

Sports

Rediscovering Dhoni at 36

cricbuzz.com

Share

Gokul Gopal

As part of India’s preparations for the 50-over World Cup in two years time, ideas of experimenting during the ODIs against Sri Lanka were floated – a pool of players to be rotated, players to be assigned certain roles and given sufficient time to prove their worth. Skipper Virat Kohli had mentioned that the tryst with experiments would continue for some time and the stretch of limited-overs matches that India are involved in would give them ample opportunity to assess the players and give the players, including MS Dhoni, the chance of creating good habits and sustaining them over a period of time.

Good habits have certainly been on display from the former India captain, who has responded to the team’s cause consistently even as some of the other attempts at experimenting have not yielded success. KL Rahul hasn’t found the middle order to his liking yet, Kedar Jadhav failed in two outings before being left out for the fourth game, while Hardik Pandya too is yet to make an impression. Their failures have left Dhoni with some work to do but the wicketkeeper-batsmen has not disappointed.

Among the six century partnerships for India in this series, three have come in the middle order and all three have involved Dhoni. One involved a top-order batsman in Rohit Sharma, one a middle-order bat in Manish Pandey and one more with a lower-order member – Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Dhoni came in before 20 overs were completed in the second and the third ODIs when India were chasing and his appearance in the fourth game was close to the 40th over when the visitors were batting first.

Each of these stands happened after a flurry of wickets and Dhoni, more or less, played the second fiddle in all of them. But his assured presence ensured that whatever little crisis that India found themselves in, were mitigated. In the second ODI, Akila Dananjaya left India in tatters, reducing them to 131 for 7 before Dhoni’s calm innings, and an important contribution from Bhuvneshwar took India to safe shores. In the third game, India slipped to 61 for 4, again losing wickets in a heap, but Dhoni had Rohit for company this time, and they took the team over the line comfortably in the end.

While his strike rate in the second ODI was 66.18, with only one four, the situation was such that it warranted damage control above anything else. In the third match, Dhoni managed four fours and a six, but his first four came more than 12 overs after he had arrived at the crease. While Rohit kept the scorecard ticking, Dhoni made it a point to settle in before attempting the shots to the ropes. It was easy for him to catch up later but his priority was consolidation. Even in the fourth game, when India lost four wickets for 40 runs after a double century stand between Kohli and Rohit, Dhoni decided to bide his time before going after the bowlers. But the big-hitting abilities weren’t lost and when they came to the fore, it did help India finish with a hefty total.

Before this series, there were arguments that Dhoni’s finishing abilities were on the wane and that he wasn’t rotating the strike as well as he was earlier in his career. In a bid to, perhaps, reinvent himself and stay in the core group that India is looking for, Dhoni decided to bring in some minor alterations to his batting, including a trigger movement back and across and a change to conventional three-strap pads. These might have played a part in some of his recent contributions but the finisher Dhoni appears to have resurfaced. Be it taking his team over the line in a chase or helping set up steep totals, he has played key roles, albeit against a struggling opposition like Sri Lanka.

Dhoni’s tougher tests are still to come but this series has given him the platform to forge a new path while remaining an integral part of the team dynamics. “It’s the hunger of all the guys in the team that’s making us play this way,” said Kohli, in a chat with Rohit Sharma for bcci.tv. “It’s amazing to see guys hungry even after performing in one or two games, they still want to go out there and do it in two more games. I think it makes my job very easy,” the captain added. Dhoni is chief among the players who have shown tremendous hunger, proving that he still has it in him to add more miles to his India cricket travel.

“Obviously (it’s) inspirational, to see someone like that playing with you, to play 300 ODIs is a lot of experience. Half the things you have probably learnt (is) by looking at the way he conducts himself. Yeah, it’s always inspirational, especially for a guy like me who started my career under him. So it’s always good to be there and learn from him,” said Manish Pandey after the fourth ODI, which was also Dhoni’s 300th ODI appearance.

Before the ODI series against Sri Lanka had started, India’s selection panel chief – MSK Prasad – had made it clear that nobody in the side is indispensable, even someone like Dhoni. But the former India wicketkeeper had also slipped in a reference of Andre Agassi, who continued to taste grand-slam success even after crossing 30 and retired at the age of 36. Dhoni too is 36, and seeing his progress in the ODIs against Sri Lanka, he looks set to add more to the 300 ODI caps. Maybe some in the World Cup too.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

COIMBATORE WEATHER