Monday 20 / May / 2024
So, what was it — the decision taken by MS Dhoni to quit as captain of the Indian limited-overs teams — like when it really happened? A tsunami, feared to hit the shores and cause devastations as horrible as the 2004 Indian Ocean tidal waves did that left more than 230,000 people dead or missing, losing its power along the way to finally end up whipping up a gentle breeze?
Selection committee chairman MSK Prasad is a relieved man. We are told that had Dhoni taken the decision a year earlier than he actually did, Prasad would have been a bit worried. It might not have been a tsunami even a year ago, but not the gentle breeze as it turned out now, perhaps.
The selectors need not worry anymore about how they could put the message — that it was time for him to spell his game plan — across to Dhoni so Virat Kohli could step in when there’s enough time left to gear the team up for the 2019 ODI World Cup. The next step will be easy for everyone concerned. Dhoni is welcome on the team as long he performs, and in the event of his form and fitness ditching him, neither will Dhoni think it right to carry on, nor will the selectors feel shy or embarrassed about telling him that his moment to make a dignified exit has come.
No doubt, the Dhoni move came in the wake of Kohli’s success as skipper of the Test team. The leadership, unlike in the case of many others before him, has not taken anything away from Kohli the batsman. Rather, the new status has only made him do better with the bat and thereby pushing the bar further up for other members of the team.
Dhoni was in the Indian dressing room on October 29 playing the fifth ODI against New Zealand, but much water has flowed under the bridge in two months. Fresh from leading the boys to a 3-0 Test series win over New Zealand, Kohli repeated his success against England with a 4-0 margin, opened the door for new, young heroes like Jayant Yadav and Karun Nair and created a new approach and mindset in the team, individually and collectively. The team has moved on without Dhoni, and it wasn’t easy for him to get back in and get going as the quintessential boss.
When Dhoni quit as captain of the Test team in December 2014, he no longer wanted to play Tests. When, two years later, he resigned as captain of the limited-overs teams, he wanted to play on. How long? The chief of selectors said Dhoni “has a couple of years left as a wicketkeeper-batsman”. The ICC Champions Trophy and ODI World Cup are happening within or around that two-year window. Is Dhoni keen on lasting that long? Maybe not.
Both the Champions Trophy and the ODI World Cup are going to be hosted by England and Wales. The former is just a few months away, with India being scheduled to open their campaign with a match against Pakistan on June 4 at Edgbaston, but the way back for Dhoni to England for the World Cup is littered with challenging limited-overs series against South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia, among others, on away tours.
Under the circumstances, Dhoni seems to have two good options. First, he could play the home series against England and then travel to England in June for the Champions Trophy and hang up his gloves and bat before he turns 36 in July. Second, he could hold back the decision and go on a tour of Sri Lanka, get back home and relax a bit before taking on Australia in a home series scheduled to kick off in October — and announce it to ring in an entirely different new year.
Both the options are practical, promising and on the right side of time, considering the ugly truth that Dhoni will be stepping into 37 on July 7. If he’s able to get one of the options right, and with the prospect of Dhoni walking in at No.4, what’s on offer is quite a few pulsating repeats of the heroics we saw at Mohali on March 27, 2016, against Australia in the ICC T20 World Championship 2016 when Dhoni and Kohli teamed up to pull off an incredible victory.
That, if it happens, looks more like Dhoni we know and love, walking into the sunset with guns blazing.
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The writer is a freelance contributor based in India. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman
