Mahendra Singh Dhoni: The inscrutable and ecstatic performer

The Thesaurus is running out of adjectives to describe this man who has a demeanour of an abbot. For a batsman whose accomplice has been belligerence, it is quite astonishing how Mahendra Singh Dhoni is able to curtail his natural instincts and yet be so effective.

Dhoni has upheld his poise as a cricketer in a nation where one good innings promises a sportsperson a path towards crazy heights. Quite often, a lot of potential superstars have fallen victim to the frenetic pace of life after the stardom and demands faced by a cricketer. And if they fail to perform the balancing act, the fall from stardom is difficult to cope with; often the sportsperson’s entire life goes in reaching the phenomenal heights which once had given him a promise of living life like a king. Dhoni has never really made us feel that he would fall from the position that he has reached. Every single time, Dhoni’s presence in the middle with the bat exudes a sense of assurance and a feeling of safety.

The critics have been harsh on him; the media has questioned his wisdom to persist with the under-performing players. There have been questions raised about his tactical blunders but Dhoni is a kind of a person who likes to live by the sword and die by it. His deportment and the way he approaches the game has not altered one bit ever since he played the exhilarating innings of 148 against Pakistan and 183 versus Sri Lanka. Dhoni’s first captain, Sourav Ganguly had given the long-haired dasher a licence to express himself and not worry about the reputation of the bowlers. As a matter of fact, Dhoni is a practitioner of Ganguly’s policy of backing the youngsters. And what makes Dhoni special is his audacity to drop the accomplished players if they are not part of his plans.

As a captain, he has had combats with tricky situations. The “gut feeling” is Dhoni’s brahmastra (X factor). Some of his moves defy logic. The purists find those moves hard to decipher. But Dhoni does not dwell in the past nor is he too anxious about the future. So what if he handed the last over of an important T20 final to Joginder Sharma? What worse could have happened? And what if Joginder had gotten us a wicket? (Which he eventually did) It is only fair to say that not many believed in Joginder’s abilities as a bowler after he was hit for a six in the final over. Neither did he possess a magic yorker like Malinga nor did he have a bouncer which could intimidate Misbah-ul-Haq. But Dhoni just told Joginder to enjoy the moment and not worry about the end result. Though the nation would have made Joginder a villain if he would have leaked another six runs (Chetan Sharma knows a thing or two about that). Dhoni’s pep talk to Joginder changed the destiny of cricket crazy India. I dare say, if Dhoni would not have comforted Joginder with the confident words, the 2007 T20 World Cup would have been Pakistan’s. Instead of savouring the moment, people talked about Dhoni’s stars. “He is lucky,” is what people said about Dhoni after the improbable coup in 2007.

It was an arduous task for Dhoni to lead the demigods of Indian cricket. There was another indictment about Dhoni that he had the men who performed and often he was left unscathed after under-performing continuously, especially in Test format. Dhoni had his share of troubles with the moving ball and to his credit, Dhoni agreed that he was perhaps not enjoying the Test format. The swords were out. “He lacks temperament to play Tests,” was the pronouncement validated even by selector Mohinder Amarnath. And some people even said Dhoni shies away from shouldering responsibilities with the bat.

That is an outlandish statement. Who batted at No. 5 in the World Cup Final to steer India to one of its most famous victory? Who bats at No. 6 position in Test matches now that India wants to accommodate an extra spinner? And who changed his maverick style of batting for team’s cause, to either bat the full quota of 50-overs or bat for the whole day, as he did scoring a double hundred at Chepauk?

There was always a sense of mystery about Dhoni’s longevity in the longest format because of his batting technique. It’s a technique that does not include basic tenets of classical batting, like getting behind the line of the ball and playing close to the body. He has his own technique and it gets him runs. Yes, Dhoni does not have the technique that adheres to the MCC coaching manual. But isn’t passion enough motivation for a performer to fight. At the end of the day, it is how much you score and not how gracefully you score that matters.

The secret of his accomplishments is attributed to the ravenous greed to succeed for the nation, every single time. Such an attitude is infectious and has the ability to galvanize the whole dressing room.

Today, after scoring a double hundred, Dhoni still did not give Australian bowlers an inch. He egged the debutant Bhuvaneshwar Kumar to hang around with him and tire down the Australian attack. Dhoni is still hungry enough for success to be at the Australians throughout the series. He may have scored a double hundred but for the champions, past laurels do not count. They seek opportunity in the present and want to make the most of it.

For Dhoni, ‘Asli test toh abhi baaki hai‘.