MS Dhoni was ruthless when it came to axing seniors from his team. Will he be treated the same way?

Last October, MS Dhoni had partnered Virat Kohli to help India craft the perfect chase against New Zealand in Mohali. Dhoni’s aggressive prods, powerful whacks and the lofts were all on display. The knock contributed to India’s eventual stroll. It ensured the hosts endured no hiccups in the chase. It could also have made the cricket fraternity believe that there was no trouble in Dhoni’s paradise with the bat.

Post the victory, Dhoni walked in for the mandatory press conference. The win and his hand in it satisfied him, but he was aware that his paradise with the bat was not perfect. Not anymore. “To some extent I am losing my ability to freely rotate in the middle,” Dhoni said, dwelling on the match. He was losing the ability to consistently notch up the remarkable scores as well.

At his hometown in Ranchi in the next game, Dhoni disappointed a packed stadium as he had a brief stay in the middle. He could only add 11 to the team’s total. In the final ODI in Vizag, he managed 41 but did not steal the show.

No more the bowlers’ nightmare

It had been a year – 13 games in the interim – since the last time Dhoni crossed 50 before he did so in Mohali. It had been three years since he last surpassed the three-figure mark. Not just his runs, but also the pace at which Dhoni usually scored them had paled in comparison to when he was in the first half of his career.

Dhoni was no more the batsman the opposition bowlers feared. In fact, he would often find it difficult to disturb the scorers at a brisk pace. He was consumed by the belief that the lower-order was incapable of much contribution with the bat, and hence took the onus to hold it together. In the process, a sense of responsibility did not allow him to hit out. And, that impacted the team’s results.

After a defeat in the tri-series Down Under in January 2015, Dhoni admitted that caution had creeped into his game. “That has been the case in the last four-five years at least,” he said. “We have groomed [Ravindra] Jadeja to do that job. [Ravichandran] Ashwin we all know can definitely bat. He is a good batsman, but he is not someone who will clear big grounds. Overall that becomes slightly difficult. Once I go in to bat at number six, it becomes like you have to hit and you can’t get out. It’s a very difficult thing to match up.”

He had lost his ability to assault the cricket ball. India had lost one of their most destructive batsmen.

However, Dhoni remained India’s best available wicketkeeper-batsman. To top it, he was the captain of the one-day outfit – with an unparalleled track record to boast. The combination made him in indispensable. But on Wednesday, Dhoni put one half of the equation out of question. He announced that his tenure as the leader of the Men in Blue had come to a close.

There is still no competition for Dhoni’s spot as the wicketkeeper who can bat in the game’s shorter forms. He is, perhaps, fitter than he has ever been over the last five-odd years. He may even return to maraud bowlers without the burden of captaincy. Batting regularly back up the order may even witness Dhoni walk into the sunset with a flourish.

The full circle

But these glorious possibilities may come with a short shelf life. The Indian team may not be too tolerant of regular failures. Kohli’s men, after all, are majorly used to victories and strong performances. Dhoni himself had sowed the seeds of intolerance.

Like Kohli, Dhoni too was in the nascent stages of his captaincy back in 2007-’08 when he took India to their inaugural World T20 title, and was then asked to lead the ODI side after Rahul Dravid stepped down. Unlike Kohli, he had a plethora of greats to pick from – Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman.

However, Dhoni believed that Dravid and Ganguly did not blend into his one-day side’s fit team culture. He soon had no room for them a year after he took over as the one-day skipper. Laxman, on the other hand, never earned an ODI cap under Dhoni.

In fact, Dhoni went a step further and even rested Sehwag and Tendulkar during the tri-series in Australia four years later. He believed that if Sehwag, Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir all played at once, they would cost the team 20 runs each. During the course of all these moves, which shook the roots of Indian cricket, Dhoni chose results over everything else – reputation, runs, history, and sentiment. That is how it must be – the team’s triumph should be the ultimate goal.

Now, the roles have reversed. Dhoni is the legend in the team, while Kohli is the victory-thirsty captain. Whenever asked, Dhoni has never expressed the possibility of walking away from the game before the 2019 World Cup, although with him you never know. But he is 35 now and two years away from cricket’s biggest event.

Kohli and Indian cricket could enjoy a period of ODI mastery if the fitter and meaner Dhoni’s batting finds the garb of a decade ago. But it remains to be seen if Kohli does a Dhoni if the latter’s stumbles become prominent. For, if Kohli too believes like Dhoni did in his heydays as captain that youth is his answer to world dominance, sentiments may have to step aside once again.