No sight in modern-day cricket is as popular as those moments when MS Dhoni heads towards the 22-yard pitch. The long-haired 42-something demigod of the masses strides purposefully, raising his bat and glancing at the skies from time to time. In the ongoing Indian Premier League 2024, he has been batting in the lower order for Chennai Super Kings, whose popularity among fans of T20 cricket is largely because of his sheer presence in the playing eleven.
MSD stayed away from professional cricket for 10 long months before the IPL. Yet, he has been demolishing rival bowling attacks towards the end of his team’s innings. Numbers tell the story. His three unbeaten double-digit knocks in the IPL are a 16-ball 37 against Delhi Capitals; a crucial 20 after facing four deliveries against archrivals Mumbai Indians; and a 28 from nine deliveries against Lucknow Super Giants. MSD’s destructive cameos and his agility behind the stumps are casting a spell on cricket lovers everywhere. Most of us have been wondering how he has stopped the march of time – once again.
The Ranchi-born cricketer has reached that stage of life when he has nothing more to prove either to himself or anybody else. One can safely guess that he follows a well-rounded workout routine and now plays the game because his fans want to see him on the field. Of course, he also loves the thought of entering the field with his teammates to enjoy competitive limited-overs cricket. The reasons for his appeal are many: his muscular build, his changing hairstyles down the years, his ability to finish matches in the shorter versions, his lightning-fast stumpings, and his calm demeanour. After leading CSK with a lot of success, he has passed on the responsibility of leading the team to the gifted Ruturaj Gaikwad this year. However, he continues to inspire everybody both on and off the field.
What cricket lovers remember more fondly is his performance as the skipper of the Indian national team. Some observers have been critical of his captaincy in Test matches, but his overall record as the leader is brilliant. Who can forget or ignore it while attempting to assess the man?
After all, he has captained India to triumphs in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, the 2011 Cricket World Cup and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. He also captained India during two Asia Cup triumphs in 2010 and 2016 and led CSK during two Champions League T20 wins in 2010 and 2014. He also led India to the number one position in the ICC Test rankings for the first time. Cricket-hungry fans of Team India remember his track record fondly, and they express their admiration for the man with celebrations inside the stadium when he steps out to play for his franchise these days.
Dhoni, who loved football much more than cricket as a school-going youngster, has been unhesitatingly unorthodox in his approach to batting throughout his career. He frequently uses raw force to send the ball in different directions on the field and outside the ground, a quality that has contributed to his popularity among the masses. Just as KS Ranjitsinhji made the leg glance famous, Gundappa Viswanath played the square cut as only he could, Sourav Ganguly showed his timing with his cover drive, and Kapil Dev played his unique Natraj shot, MSD has popularised the helicopter shot that derives its power from the use of the bottom-hand. Each time he steps out to bat, his fans expect to see a helicopter shot or two in his knock. Is the situation any different in IPL this year? It is not.
Like all cricketing greats, MSD has masterminded many fascinating memories. As a young limited-overs captain during India’s 2007 ICC World Twenty20 campaign, he famously passed on the ball to the inexperienced Joginder Sharma for bowling the last over in the final against Pakistan. Sharma picked up the all-important wicket of Misbah-ul-Haq, and India won the title. In the 2011 Cricket World Cup final against Sri Lanka, he batted higher up the order. The consequence: a brilliant unbeaten captain’s knock of 91 from 79 deliveries, which played a huge role in India’s win. Responsible for several unlikely wins for his team because of his performances with the bat and a calm skipper who made many brilliant decisions on the field, he is also worshipped as a hero who has inspired many younger cricketers from small towns across India.
One of the most discussed facts of his life before cricket is that he worked as a travelling ticket examiner (TTE), usually known as a ticket collector, at the Kharagpur railway station from 2001 to 2003. In 2016, the Neeraj Pandey-helmed biographical film MS Dhoni: The Untold Story hit the marquee and became a much-appreciated box-office success. Eight years after Pandey shared his inspirational story with the masses, MSD’s journey continues.
Aptly known as Captain Cool, MSD is the grand old man of modern-day cricket in an era when a generational shift in Indian cricket is distinctly noticeable. Let us celebrate him for what he has to offer – until he decides to break our hearts with that inevitable final goodbye.
(The writer, a journalist for three decades, writes on literature and pop culture. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views)
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