December 2014
It was the year 2006. India was touring Pakistan. This was the second tour in 3 years after the wildly successful 2004 tour which India won. The young wicketkeeper had already made headlines as the hardworking ticket collector from a small town called Ranchi who had made waves with his batting and keeping. He had already played a series at home against Sri Lanka and had pummeled that massive 183 in a ODI. Adam Gilchrist was in his last years. Sanga was still making his name. But this young man sporting a mane and brandishing his bat like a sword with a technique all his own was batting like we has not seen. He was not unlike Sehwag in effectivess but more dangerous because he hit them as long you had seen anyone hit. MS Dhoni was a phenomenon even before he had become a superstar. Coming back to this series. Pakistan had a deadly bowling attack in Mohammed Asif, Shoaib Akthar, Shahid Afridi, Danish Kaneria and Abdur Razzak. The first test did not see Dhoni bat ater a boring draw where Sehwag and Dravid had that massive 410 runs opening stand. But the second test at Faisalabad was precariously placed with India at less than 300 for 5 after Pakistan had scored 500 in their 1st innings. Akthar and Asif were getting crazy reverse swing. In walked Dhoni and smashed the bowling like he was clubbing them. Pulls, cuts, lofted shots, Jabs all of them with a power not seen since Sanath Jayasuriya and precision and distance quite spectacular. He made a 148 in 150 balls and took India to 600. The test was drawn but Dhoni had arrived. In the years that followed as his captaincy calling came to limited overs cricket first, his batting lost the edge in Tests. Yet he did make those telling contributions often- 224 vs Australia, 144 vs West Indies and 132 vs South Africa and the series on England this year. But you got the feeling that he was either getting bored batting in tests or his weaknesses were growing. Yet as a captain, he took India to the top of World rankings. He took over at a difficult time from Kumble with the seniors retiring. But he was the constant in that dressing room (of course Tendulkar was there but that’s a given isn’t it?). Building the belief, building confidence, putting up the brave face, taking defeat after defeat abroad and yet being optimistic. Its been a bloody tough job and the signs are showing. He was strained. But he had to wait until he was absolutely sure someone was ready to take over. Virat Kohli showed in this series he was ready(his brand of cricket is a topic for another day). And as quietly as his wont, without fanfare, in exactly the way he had come to define his game and persona, calmly he said he is moving on. Somewhere I read that Dhoni has played around 400 matches in all ( including Test ODIs T20, IPL, CLT20 etc) over last 6 years. That’s a frightening number considering he has to keep, bat and lead all his teams. One would understand if he said its a strain. He is not the best wicketkeeper in the country certainly not the best Test batsman either. One would understand. This is ofcouse not enough to justify all that should be written about him. So shall save that for another day. Of course limited overs is his ring, his rule and he adds value to the team. But for now, thank you MS for the memories.
THE CRICKET ROUND UP 