Why it is too early to call for Dhoni's retirement
It has only been a month since the biopic on MS Dhoni had hit the theaters. Now everyone can relate to the iconic dialogue “Kaha tha na Mahi upar aayega toh marega!” (I told you Dhoni will play well if he bats in the top order) from the movie after Dhoni played a superb knock in the third ODI.
“Ye Mahi ko upar kyun nahi Khilate hain?!” (Why does not Dhoni bat in the top order?) - is probably one of the most frequently asked questions in Indian cricket. While a lot used to blame the Indian team management for not letting Dhoni bat in the top order during the early part of his international career, the Indian cricket fans could blame nobody but Dhoni, the present Indian captain in limited overs format, for the decline in his batting form in recent times.
The rise of Dhoni as an international cricketer is a perfect example of a ‘rags to riches’ story. A small town boy making it big in international cricket with his hard work, perseverance, and determination, and then, he goes on to become India’s most successful captain as well. Walking on this path, he has made many sacrifices; one of them being pushing himself to bat lower down the order. At a time when he was creating waves in international cricket batting in the top four, the Indian team was falling short of the finishing line every time failing to score the required runs in the death overs due to the lack of a good finisher in the team. India had top-class openers and middle-order batsmen in Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, and Yuvraj Singh at that time; the middle-order became even stronger with the arrival of Virat Kohli. However, there was no such player who could take the pressure on and take India past the finishing line. In such circumstances, Dhoni pushed himself down to batting at No.6 and 7 to ensure that India has a balanced batting order in every respect.
Now fast forward five years from the 2011 World Cup to present day in 2016: Tendulkar and Sehwag have already retired, whereas Gambhir and Yuvraj are past their best. The whole top-order has undergone a huge transformation and only Kohli is the one who has stood the test of time in the Indian team. As far as Dhoni is concerned, at 35 years of age, many would say that he is in the twilight of his career. The slump in his batting form has been visible in the past couple of years, he is no more the devastating batsman that he used to be at his peak and most importantly, he has lost his finishing touch that he used to have batting lower down the order as well. However, his fitness is still at its peak and that is what keeps him going still at this age.
One would not disagree that India has been too much dependent on Kohli in recent times. The reason is India’s constantly changing middle-order and unstable top-order. These constant changes are only affecting the team’s performance, and Kohli can’t dig them out of trouble every time. Now it is high time for Dhoni to continue batting at his original No.4 position as it is the only way to gain some stability in the batting order. There will also be a positive influence on the openers and the lower order batsmen with Kohli and Dhoni batting at No.3 and 4, respectively; for the openers can play with freedom knowing that the two most experienced batsmen in the team are yet to come after them and the lower middle order can always count on the platform created by the duo to go for the late charge in the death overs. In this way, the Indian batting order can take the shape of a trident with each aspect being as dangerous as the other.
© Getty ImagesMoreover, Dhoni has only allowed the pressure to mount on himself by batting so low down the order all these years as criticism and hatred are all he got whenever he failed to finish off a match. Now is the right time to return to his favorite batting position as the team needs him there and guys like Hardik Pandya and Kedar Jadhav have arrived who can play the finisher’s role with ease. A career which only seemed good to last for a couple of years more from now has suddenly got a renewed boost with Dhoni’s superb innings in the second ODI against New Zealand. He and Kohli looked to be in total control in the middle during the whole match and didn’t allow the Kiwi bowlers to get on top of them. The duo’s intimidating character’s made the task far more difficult for the kiwi bowlers and every opposition will face such problem in the coming years if this Kohli-Dhoni partnership continues to grow.
Age is not the barrier for Dhoni, his form is! With the kind of fitness he has at present, he can easily play till his 40s. Take Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq for example; he is still going strong at the age of 42 years in Tests for Pakistan. So there is no reason why Dhoni can’t do it! It’s his form that’s going to play the most crucial factor in determining the fate and longevity of his career. However, there should not be any problem at all for him as he is fully fit and maybe it will take a couple of matches more for him to get back to his groove.
Dhoni now already has 9000 ODI runs to his name and at the moment there is nothing likely to stop him from joining that elite club of 10000 ODI runs. With the renewed life as a cricketer he has got in the No.4 position, fans and pundits will only expect him to play for at least five years more to see him scoring a few more hundreds, leading India to some more memorable victories, and probably even lifting another World Cup for India, so that another generation of kids can roam the streets on their bicycles chanting “Mahi maar raha hain, Mahi maar raha hain!”