Ever since his retirement from Test cricket, the questions around Dhoni’s presence in the limited-overs sides have grown louder. It is true Dhoni is not the batsman he once was. However, the 35-year-old demonstrated in Mohali that he still had plenty to offer with the bat. And Ranchi’s favourite son is unspeakably brilliant behind the stumps.
When Mahendra Singh Dhoni walked out to bat, in the second ODI against Bangladesh in Mirpur last year, it was the first time in 35 months that he had emerged at two-drop. Dhoni made a laboured 75-ball-47 that afternoon, as India was bundled out for 200, a score that Bangladesh easily overhauled to register its first one-day series win over its neighbour.
Despite all the tumult over the historic nature of that Indian defeat, the captain’s decision to promote himself up the order did not go unnoticed. “I would like to bat slightly up the order so I can play a bit more freely,” he said later. “In the last four-five years, I have batted at 6, and there is always some kind of pressure or the other, so I have not been able to bat freely. Yes, I have adapted to what the team needed of me since 2006, but for the longer run it is important for us to see who is a good batter at 6, 7, or maybe even 5.”
Recently, that conversation resurfaced when Dhoni pushed himself up to No. 4 again, during the third ODI against New Zealand in Mohali. The skipper made a 91-ball-80, stitching together a crucial 151-run partnership with Virat Kohli, as India won by seven wickets.
“I HAVE BATTED LOWER DOWN for a long time, I think 200 innings down the order. To some extent, I am losing my ability to freely rotate in the middle, so I have decided to bat up and let others finish,” he said afterwards.
Ever since his retirement from Test cricket, the questions around Dhoni’s presence in the limited-overs sides have grown louder. His waning ability to clear the ropes and his supposed decline as a ‘finisher’, have been used as arguments to suggest he should consider retirement.
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