A dream swansong was perhaps never meant to happen for MS Dhoni
10th July 2019, Old Trafford (Manchester) cricket ground, the 1st semifinal of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup. India require 25 runs of the last 10 deliveries. An entire country is in anticipation of another MS Dhoni masterclass finish.
After all, it is the only hope they have left. And it rests on the shoulders of the one who has won them endless games through his sheer brilliance, one who never gets bogged down under any circumstances.
Lockie Ferguson runs in and surprises MS Dhoni by the pace on the ball. The batsman fails to connect properly with his pull shot, and the ball rolls towards square leg. Just a trifle late to take off for the first run, he decides to come back for the second.
MS Dhoni knew that the only way India could reach the final is if he faces almost all the deliveries from that point on. Having played so many high-pressure matches, there could not have been someone with a better situational awareness than MS Dhoni.
However, this time, things did not happen the way MS Dhoni had wanted them to happen. Martin Guptill, out of nowhere, produced a direct hit at the striker’s end.
As is the case with most direct hits, it looked mighty close. Indians all around the globe waited with trepidation. The giant TV screen showed that MS Dhoni was inches short of his crease.
It sent the Black Caps into a frenzy while a billion Indian fans watching the match in person, in their office cafeterias, roadside or on their television sets into stunned silence.
Unable to recollect their thoughts for a moment, the Indian fans in the stadium finally realised that they might have seen their favourite son for the last time ever in Indian colours.
They stood up to applaud him for everything he had done over the past 15 years; MS Dhoni, meanwhile, had a grimace on his face, probably lamenting the decision of not putting in the dive.
Could he have avoided that second run? Maybe.
Could he have accelerated a bit earlier? Maybe.
Could he have come higher in the batting order? Maybe.
An old saying goes like: “There are no ifs and buts in Cricket”. But for MS Dhoni, the word 'maybe' has defined a large chunk of his career.
Maybe an experienced Harbhajan Singh should have been given the final over ahead of Joginder Sharma in the inaugural World T20 final. Maybe an in-form Yuvraj Singh should have come ahead of MS Dhoni in the 2011 World Cup final.
Maybe an off-colour Ishant Sharma should not have been given a crucial over in the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy final.
These things didn’t happen obviously, and for good reason. And the mastermind behind all that glory was always one man, the one and only MS Dhoni.
The decline of MS Dhoni
But suddenly, something happened. MS Dhoni wasn’t the same finisher who effortlessly won India any game out of nowhere; he wasn’t the same batsman who instilled a fear among the bowlers just by his mere presence at the crease.
Perhaps, MS Dhoni's hitting ability diminished with age. Perhaps, bowlers learnt to figure him better after taking years of pounding. Perhaps, he decided to take on the role of the ‘Calm in the storm’ instead of being 'the storm’ as explained beautifully by renowned commentator and cricket expert Harsha Bhogle in this video.
Make no mistake, MS Dhoni's wicketkeeping skills are still the best in the world by a distance; his love with the DRS blossomed with every passing game and his tactics from behind the stumps have been top-notch. But it was MS Dhoni the batsman that had taken world cricket by storm over the years, and all were desperate to see that magic again.
There was occasional brilliance from MS Dhoni in international cricket and the IPL, but even his most ardent fans would admit that the unbelievable consistency they were used to seeing over the years was not there.
MS Dhoni continued to fight it out, though. A friendly banter with a journalist after India’s semifinal exit in the ICC World T20 2016 had seen him point out the fact that India did not have a backup wicketkeeper batsman.
In hindsight, it was true. But the emergence of Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul and the resurgence of Dinesh Karthik meant that India suddenly had a barrage of capable wicketkeeper batsmen at their disposal.
But no one could take away MS Dhoni's game awareness and calm that he brought with him in high-octane games. He was the unanimous choice for India’s first-choice wicketkeeper at the 2019 World Cup.
For India, this World cup was in a way a near replica of the 2011 edition: a well-balanced outfit capable of lifting the cup; a captain aiming for glory in his first attempt and a legend who was playing his last World Cup looking to bow out on a high.
It all started smoothly with wins against South Africa and Australia. But after that, something did not seem normal.
If anyone has closely followed India’s performances in major tournaments over the last few years, the one common thing has always been that they don’t like to chop and change much. In fact, they played the 2013 Champions Trophy with an unchanged XI throughout.
However, this time around, it seemed like India were themselves not sure of their best playing-XI, especially after the injury to Shikhar Dhawan.
KL Rahul did whatever was asked of him to perfection, but it left a huge void in the Indian middle order. Vijay Shankar came and went. Add to that the lack of experience of Rishabh Pant, and suddenly we saw a whole lot of problems with the Indian batting.
The injury to Bhuvneshwar Kumar proved to be the final nail in the coffin as it hampered India’s lower-order batting to some extent. Mohammed Shami performed exceedingly well in the limited opportunities he got, but his lack of batting skills meant that he was benched when Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned.
Even Kedar Jadhav struggled with his batting. He was dropped in favour of Dinesh Karthik who did not do any better either, though. Kuldeep Yadav had a horror run of form since the IPL, which meant that he was replaced by Ravindra Jadeja mid-way through the tournament.
So many changes in a jiffy signalled that somewhere, something was not normal as far as team combinations were concerned.
It was so unlike what we were used to seeing from the Indian team in big tournaments. However, all the shortcomings got masked as India continued to churn out victories, largely due to the stellar form of their top-three with the bat and the collective performances of the bowlers.
Amidst all this, the major centre of scrutiny was the performance of MS Dhoni. After all, he had gone into this World Cup on the back of a magnificent run of form in the IPL and the warmup games. But he somehow could not replicate the same form in the league stage of the tournament.
MS Dhoni started decently, producing crucial knocks in the first couple of games against South Africa and Australia respectively, but his subsequent performances left a lot to be desired.
In MS Dhoni's defence, though, it can be said that he didn’t do that badly given the slow nature of surfaces that were on offer. But as had been the case over the past few years, there was no shortage of criticism that was being thrown at MS Dhoni.
Come the semifinal game against New Zealand, India were the favourites to cruise through to the final. But this time around, there was no masking of India's weaknesses against the swinging ball, which were brutally exposed when their top-three was in the dugout at the score of only five.
Dinesh Karthik followed suit and offered a brief resistance before he was dismissed. At that point when everyone expected MS Dhoni to come out to stem the rot, the team management surprised everyone by sending in Hardik Pandya instead.
To their credit, though, both Pant and Pandya curbed their natural instincts by playing sedate knocks. But when the time was ripe for them to take over, they perished playing reckless shots.
It was now up to MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja to bat with responsibility as well as take care of the required rate. And the duo started playing their roles to perfection.
Even after Jadeja’s dismissal, New Zealand had a big challenge on their hands, MS Dhoni - the finisher - was still at the crease.
A man who could do no wrong in his prime.
A battered veteran past his prime, fighting to keep his nation alive.
A chance to change all that had transpired earlier in the day.
A chance to go out on a high, on his own terms.
Maybe one last hurrah from MS Dhoni was on the cards. But destiny had something else in store for him.
He couldn’t even raise his bat to acknowledge a fighting half-century. That perfectly symbolised the player he had been throughout his entire career: one who always prioritised the interests of the team and stayed in the background regardless of his personal achievement.
The end could have been better for MS Dhoni, but his team let him down. In all honesty, India weren’t the same dominating outfit they had been in each of the three ICC tournaments they won under MS Dhoni.
The man himself had scripted perfect send-offs for stalwarts of our game such as Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble.
Winning the World Cup and giving MS Dhoni his own perfect send-off would have been the ideal script. Ironically for someone who gave his entire career to his country without playing for records or fame, perhaps it was never meant to happen.
Even all of this does not take away the fact that MS Dhoni has been a gem of a batsman, wicketkeeper and captain, and he created a legacy which is almost impossible to replicate.
Happy retirement, Mahendra Singh Dhoni!