3rd ODI: Against the backdrop of Virat Kohli’s brilliance, MS Dhoni has finally found his spot

Corey Anderson came to the crease at a crucial juncture, and duly holed out at short cover, lobbing a simple catch off a full toss in the third One-Day International in Mohali. Kedar Jadhav was ecstatic. It was one of the easiest dismissals you will see in ODI cricket, and yet it was not a surprise. For this has happened repeatedly on this tour for New Zealand.

From Tests to the ODIs, as this contest has progressed, such dismissals have become routine. And it encapsulates what this tour has been about – so much promise and so little delivery. The Black Caps pushed India in the Test series, but the ODI series has been a bit of a letdown. Sure, the scoreline reads 2-1, stating that they have managed to beat India in the limited-overs arena. But let it also be said here that India shot themselves in the foot during the Delhi run-chase in the second ODI.

For a third successive time in three matches, New Zealand’s middle order collapsed. That it has become repetitive ought to be worrying for this young team. That the same batsmen are failing showcases an inability to learn. The team management will have some tough answers to give when they go home and look back at how things shaped up in these six weeks.

You can’t drop Kohli

But they alone should not be held accountable. Senior players have a higher dividend of criticism in store for them, say, someone like Ross Taylor. He has not scored anything of note in this series. The 44 in Mohali on Sunday was his highest score of the tour, including the three-day match against Mumbai at the start of the trip.

He resurrected the innings at a precious time, adding 73 runs with Tom Latham, and then, ended up stumped by a speedy MS Dhoni. Should he not have sustained that momentum a little longer? Does an experienced player like him need to be told this bit?

Then, he dropped Virat Kohli when the batsman was just on six. At a time when India are struggling to finish run chases, and are relying on their star batsman particularly in light of a competitive chase of 286, this was an unpardonable offence by Taylor. More so, because he was placed at a wide third slip position, and Kohli hit the ball straight at him.

From batting to fielding, the unsatisfactory antics of Taylor and Anderson defined what New Zealand’s tour has been all about: what might have been.

The Virat show

A run-chase. India in trouble. Kohli at the crease. You know how it turns out usually. Mohali was a repetition of the same.

After the match, Dhoni was asked if Kohli is the greatest ODI chaser in history. “The obsession with comparisons is not fair,” he said. “The game has changed so much over the years. How do you compare Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag even though they batted at the top of the order?”

It is a fair answer, one that is unacceptable to critics who rely mostly on statistics. Kohli is a monster of the same figures, reeling in all the greats who have walked the ODI path before him. Among them is Sachin Tendulkar, arguably the greatest ODI run-scorer of all time. It can be argued that Kohli’s pace of run scoring might see that mountain of runs scaled.

However this is not about comparison in terms of number of runs scored or even their type. This is about managing expectations. If Tendulkar walked a tight rope wherein he was expected to score big every single time, Kohli too has managed to achieve that status, albeit with the additional rider for a run-chase. For when he does not score, India loses, just like in Delhi.

Dhoni changes things around

When the skipper walked out to bat at No. 4, it was a confirmation of what he had said at toss-time. “This looks like a complete side for us,” he said, referring to the unchanged combination he had opted for. Two bowling all-rounders in Jadhav and Hardik Pandya, with backup bowlers restricting New Zealand in this series, provided relief as well as consistency.

The issue remained with the batting line-up for a want of finishers. For Dhoni to promote himself, and then go on to score in the attacking manner that he did, is basically an acceptance of the long-held belief in the Indian dressing room that he can no longer bat down the order. It is almost as if he was waiting for a situation like this, to play an innings of such magnitude, in order to make up his mind.

However, this has resulted in loss of precious time for Dhoni. Time and again, the Indian skipper has let slip the various deficiencies creeping into his game, slowly but surely. In Mohali, he admitted that “rotating strike isn’t easy anymore”, thus the need to come up the order.

Not only age, but also bowlers from around the world are also catching up with him. As such, if there is ever a confirmatory argument for this change of batting order to become a permanent solution, this 80-run knock was one.

It is now for Dhoni the captain to accept what Dhoni the batsman has revealed in the best interests of the Indian ODI team in the near future.