MS Dhoni's final lap or another false alarm? CSK legend may not finish like before, but don’t turn the last page yet
Four games into Season 18, the whispers are slowly gathering pace. Should Dhoni continue to play? Is it time to move on from Thala?
From the time he shut down Danny Morrison with his iconic reply in Dubai four and a half years, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been the subject of multiple retirement speculations each year.
On 1 November 2020, with Chennai Super Kings already eliminated going into their final league fixture against Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings), Morrison asked the CSK skipper at the toss if that was his last game for the franchise. “Definitely not,” the former Indian captain, who had a couple of months previously announced his international retirement, shot back.
Dhoni masterminded victorious campaigns in 2021 and 2023 to cement his already unshakeable relationship with CSK, though of late, and especially this season, questions are beginning to resurface over whether the 43-year-old is overstaying his welcome.
The reintroduction of an old rule – whereby a player retired internationally for five years would be considered ‘uncapped’ – allowed CSK to retain Dhoni ahead of the November big auction without compromising on their requirements. Dhoni had already ceded the captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad but CSK weren’t going to let him go. And Dhoni wasn’t going to let CSK go.
Four games into Season 18, the whispers are slowly gathering pace. Should Dhoni continue to play? Is it time to move on from Thala? After all, he is not pulling his weight with the bat, his knees need constant and careful monitoring, don’t they?
It’s funny, how these things pan out. Dhoni has batted once at No. 8 (in the opening-game win against Mumbai Indians), bizarrely at No. 9 in the next outing against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and at No. 7 in the last two fixtures, against Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals. In all four chases, he hasn’t made much of an impact – the opener was practically won before he came to the middle – but there are a few interesting facts worth reflecting on.
Only three batters – Gaikwad (121), opener Rachin Ravindra (109) and Vijay Shankar (78) have made more runs than Dhoni (76). Only Gaikwad (155.12) has a better strike-rate; Dhoni’s 138.18 is better than even Shivam Dube, an acknowledged taker-down of spin who has yet to make a statement this season. Dube (6) alone has more sixes than Dhoni (4), whose balls per boundary is 6.11. So, is Dhoni as much of a liability as he is being made out to be, in a batting line-up that has produced a mere four half-centuries in as many matches and where the top order has been conspicuous by its absence?
Not the Dhoni he once was
Saturday’s painstaking unbeaten 30 off 26 deliveries has become the latest stick to beat Dhoni with. When he walked out to bat at 74 for five, CSK needed 110 in 56 deliveries – nearly 12 runs an over, almost two runs a ball. Shankar, leading a charmed existence that included a missed leg before review and two dropped catches, had spent a reasonable amount of time and still struggled for timing. Not for the first time, the top order had been blown away. Dhoni of maybe a half-dozen years back would have launched an assault, or maybe not, given his propensity to take it deep, but this is no longer that Dhoni. It wasn’t until his 19th ball that he opened his shoulders and smacked Mukesh Kumar for his only six. Eventually, CSK were well beaten, by 25 runs, to slump to their third loss in four outings.
Dhoni continues to be sensational behind the wickets, his stumpings of Suryakumar Yadav and Phil Salt in the ‘lightning’ category of the sort only he can conjure. He is fumbling a little more than earlier, admittedly, but he is worth his weight as a gloveman because of his uncanny reading of the Decision (Dhoni?) Review System process and the wealth of experience he brings with his knowledge of angles, especially towards the closing stages of an innings when Gaikwad mans the boundary ropes. Even in defeat on Saturday, he talked the increasingly frustrated Shankar into not trying to overreach though some will feel a greater show of intent was the need of the hour. Dhoni is clearly not the Dhoni he once was – which one of us is, anyway? – but it is debatable if he is holding up the progress of his franchise.
Rumour mills went into overdrive on Saturday when his parents came to Chepauk for the first time ever in all these years. But Stephen Fleming, the head coach, silenced retirement chatter. Fleming, as much as anyone, believes Dhoni will know when it is time. CSK are willing, indeed happy, to leave that decision to him. When Dhoni feels he is past his sell-by date, he will go. For now, he doesn’t feel so. Simple.
