After almost a decade and a half into international cricket, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Mahi) became the sixth Indian and only the 20th cricketer in the history of ODI cricket to play 300 ODIs. India’s former skipper is also the fourth highest run-getter for India in ODIs and is one of the all-time greats in the shorter format of the game.
Remember the long haired Jharkhand wicket-keeper batsman who was ready to express himself, not the most technically correct, but damn effective, none the less. Even his wicket-keeping skills were more of work in progress, but goodness that man could clear the rope with ease. Dhoni was never an artist with the bat or behind the stumps. Dhoni believed in his own techniques rather than textbook cricket, he wasn’t the Tendulkar, the Ganguly, the Dravid, but the truth is they weren’t Dhoni either. Dhoni was different right from his debut in 2004.
Despite his unorthodox cricket, Dhoni has alongside his name 9658 runs in 301 matches. To put things into perspective, Dhoni is only behind Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid in the highest run getters for India in ODI’s but all of them batted at a higher batting order position than Dhoni. Dhoni for the majority of his career has batted at no. 5 and no. 6, under enormous scoreboard pressure or huge pressure to up the run rate when batting first. It isn’t that he didn’t do well up the order, at No. 3 and No. 4 he was equally successful, with his career best 183* coming in at No. 3 position against Sri Lanka.
But when Dhoni became captain, he pushed himself lower and lower in the order to take up the responsibility of finishing off games and that he did with astonishing and unprecedented success. MS Dhoni is arguably the greatest finisher of all times. For his entire career, Mahi has defined composure, calmness and coolness and with a balanced head on his shoulders, Mahi is always driven to win.
When the time came, Mahi did come up the order gain, on April 2, 2011 at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. The rest is history. Dhoni has indeed come a long way from being just a satisfactory wicketkeeper to now being the only wicketkeeper to affect 100 stumpings. From being an aggressive floater to a reliable finisher, Dhoni is now the senior batsman in the team. Since he gave up captaincy in the beginning of the year, we see a Dhoni 2.0, and the sense of reassurance has remained constant, whenever Dhoni is out in the middle.
There is no way India are going in for the World Cup without Mahi, there is no way India are travelling to England without Mahi, Mahi has still a lot to offer to the team, the Mahi way is still quite a journey ahead.
