Truthful Tuesday | MS Dhoni’s batting legacy transcends cricket zenith way more than his leadership aura

This has been a dichotomy of the last five years but I am not ashamed to admit that I never really tried to find a distinctive answer to this question. Partly because I (don't) understand MS Dhoni at a very organic level, which clouds my thinking while getting the long and short of his phenomenon, or partly because the mysticism that MS evokes is too dramatic for all of us to comprehend. There was a blinkered doggedness but no exuberant fist-pumping, there was an inhuman ability to keep calm in the worst of situations but no signs of his losing his sleep over a mere sport, which he understood, can never be the single biggest denominator to dictate his life and happiness.

A relentlessly measured cricketer, Dhoni’s immense power and magnificent eyes were the major reason that propelled him to score 10,773 ODI runs at a fantastic average of 50.57. How many lower-order batsmen can you name who achieved the landmark? None? It is because there are none. Not one player in history has even come close to the brilliance of the former Indian skipper who is conclusively the greatest lower-order batsman who ever lived. In the process, not only did he have to change his style to suit the demands of the team, towards the backend of 2008 when Ajantha Mendis started pinning down the Indians like he was up against a school team, but also made sure he remained effective in his style and substance for over a decade after that.

Of all 21st century batsmen who have more than or 2000 runs to their names while batting at Nos. 5-7, MS Dhoni has scored 8,132 runs 47.6 while being dismissed in every 55.6 balls. Average wise, only AB de Villiers and Michael Bevan were better, with 79.8 and 51.3 respectively, but run-wise, the next best is Angelo Mathews, who has 2765 runs lesser than the former Indian skipper. Isn’t it a tribute to his resilience and a pretty solid generalisation of Dhoni’s capability as a batsman?

Now that we have come to understand in terms of Dhoni’s scoring ability, let’s delve deeper into the other paraphernalia that made his legend. While batting between No.5 to No.7, Dhoni’s partners at the other end averaged 34.5, scoring at 100.7, being dismissed in every 34.2 balls. With Dhoni staying in the middle for an average of 56 balls per dismissal, it almost ensured that the chances of a collapse were slim, with the runs coming thick and fast. Why was this special? Because only de Villiers, in the 21st century, has played with greater returns in ODI cricket, but his partners never had that luxury to dictate the course of action. Read this line again while remembering that Dhoni still achieved over 10,000 runs. Let that sink in first.

While that is a great indicator of his immense contribution to the Indian cricket as a captain, the runs he scored during his 15-year-long international career wasn’t just an amplifier but a serious negotiator for greatness in his own standing. How would you otherwise explain the impact of someone who batted in 75 successful ODI chases for India and when he remained undefeated, India won 47 out of 49 games. If you feel Dhoni remained undefeated because of his tendency to take the game to the final over, 40 of these 47 chases were completed before the final over. In aggregate, 134 of the 145 chases in which Dhoni batted did not involve his presence in the final over of the chase. He was definitely more than a last-over a finisher.

On his 39th Birthday, probably it is imperative to understand Dhoni in a whole new level, where we learn and unlearn, before finally having the perspective. Was he a great skipper? Definitely. Was he an even better batsman? Undoubtedly, Yes. And for us, for all the fans of this beautiful sport, this is the most rational objective on a man who mystified mysticism through the eternal sunshine of his spotless aura. A dynamite of Indian cricket and a forever icon.