Karun, Hardik, Dhoni and takeaways from an IPL game

The best IPL match for me in the last two weeks was between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals. Few matches have so many takeaways.

Let’s start with Karun Nair, who played a sensational innings, albeit in a losing cause. I rarely get emotional when it comes to cricket but after the game Karun Nair’s tweet from three years back resurfaced; it said ‘Dear cricket, give me another chance’.

And cricket gave him another chance.

It’s not just his potential IPL career that has got a boost, but this innings put Karun Nair in the spotlight and with him his terrific domestic performances in the shadows for the last two years. In an ideal world, this should not be the case, for it is the job of the selector to be closely watching domestic performances when no one else does.

However, the reality is that IPL performances have such a huge visibility factor that now everyone is talking about Karun Nair, not just how terrific a T20 batter he is now but how he should be in the Indian test team with 863 runs at an average of 53.93 in the last Ranji season.

Notwithstanding that T20s and Tests are two ends of the spectrum, and the way he batted in this innings gives us no indication how he is likely to go in England.

If selected, it will confirm an unwritten truth, that outside pressure does influence selection and non-selection of a player. It’s one singular reason why our icons get such a long rope well past their expiry date. IPL that way is an amazing marketing tool, which has now made a strong case for Karun Nair to be reconsidered for the long format.

The other takeaway for me was a very emotional Hardik Pandya, who has had a very testing time as Mumbai Indians captain. After this close game, he was seen sitting in the dugout looking happy and relieved like a huge load had been lifted off his shoulders.

It was, after all, only the second win this season for MI and it came against a strong, in-form Delhi team.

There was some suggestion in the media coverage after the game that Rohit Sharma from outside had initiated a very important move on the field which eventually proved a game changer.

Here again you see a tendency in us to make senior iconic players look better than they actually are, but in doing so we often stunt the growth of other deserving players, Hardik the captain in this instance.

Suggestions are very easy to give, you can give that dime a dozen every game, but the guy in the hot seat who is accountable should be given more credit for acting or not acting on those suggestions.

If a suggestion does not work, it’s not the guy giving the suggestion, but the actual captain who gets all the flak for important tactical decisions. Must say, Hardik Pandya hasn’t quite received the support and good wishes from us that he deserves. Wasn’t he the captain when GT won IPL in 2022 and were runners up next year?

Finally, Dhoni, the hot topic this IPL.

I for one never thought we would see Dhoni being attacked on social media, though he too has not been spared, but that night at Kotla I remembered Dhoni at his peak when Ashutosh Sharma got run out at a critical stage and DC lost the game.

Ashutosh got out trying to steal a second seemingly impossible run.

Now, Dhoni in that exact situation would have sprinted the first run but stopped definitively in the crease at the other end realising the second run is now not possible and a tail-ender would be on strike.

The dominant thought being to not get out as the set batter, he would have taken the game to the last ball if necessary, knowing that when it comes to the final 12 balls, the bowler is far more nervous than he is.

This anxious bowler, Dhoni knew, would bowl at least two bad balls per over.

And that’s where he seized his moment. We see a lot of power-hitters like Dhoni now, but when it comes to keeping your head in run chases there is no one close to him amongst the hundreds in IPL with strike rates of over 200. This was evident watching in-form DC batters go about chasing 194. They were all out 12 runs short with six balls to spare.