Opinion As Dhoni bows out

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has always shown a keen sense of timing. His move to retire from Test cricket could not have come at a better moment. The weariness that inevitably sets in from playing cricket across all formats for nearly a decade, had started to show. His successor for Team India’s captaincy, Virat Kohli, had shown in his first Test as captain that he was ready to take over. Having lost yet another series outside India, Dhoni could sense the rumbling. And, he wouldn’t wait for it to gain ground. On Tuesday, soon after batting India to safety in the Melbourne Test, India’s arguably finest ever wicket-keeper-batsman and most successful Test captain, announced his decision to quit Test cricket. The exit was very Dhoni: emphatic but matter of fact, with minimum fuss and frills.

Dhoni represents a generation that marked Indian cricket’s shift from the metros to small towns. He shrugged off the burden of the coaching manual and created his own style and technique, using the power of the wrist, inventing new strokes to compensate for his technical deficiencies. Against fast bowlers, he would step out of the crease to negate the swing and offer the body as a line of defence when they bounced. For a team that had lacked a genuine all-rounder since Kapil Dev, he was the man to turn to whenever the top-order batsmen failed. Under his captaincy, Team India became Number One in the ICC Test rankings and even blanked the Australians four-nil a year ago, after he set the tone of the battle with a swashbuckling 224 in the opening match of the series. In the latter part of his career, he would curb his aggressive instinct to play what some might describe as dour cricket to ensure that the team wouldn’t lose.

Advertisement

His determination, quiet confidence and cool demeanour have made him an aspirational figure for a generation of cricket enthusiasts and players across India, especially in its small towns. He leaves a daunting legacy.