In a pre-season promotional advert, Sanju Samson is seen telling MS Dhoni {that a} new 13-year-old boy within the Rajasthan Royals squad will win an IPL title earlier than the Chennai Tremendous Kings legend retires! The tongue-in-cheek remark will resonate with followers.
“Will this be Dhoni’s final IPL?” That’s a query round which a cottage business has sprung up over the previous couple of IPL seasons. There’s no definitive reply to that query but. Nobody precisely is aware of when it’s going to occur. And by now, Dhoni himself has began having fun with this cat-and-mouse sport. He likes to provide you with cryptic feedback about his “previous couple of years in cricket” right here and there, sending everybody in a tizzy.
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After his worldwide retirement approach again in Aug 2020, the 43-year-old’s batting prowess has been understandably on the wane. His physique, fairly clearly, struggles to take the damage and tear of the two-month grind that’s the IPL. Within the final two years, he principally restricted himself to 10-ball cameos, wherein he seemed to clear the fence.
Whereas he has struggled to manoeuvre the strike towards spinners within the center overs, his knees usually are not adequate to go for these super-quick singles that he was a grasp of in his prime.
However then, that’s simply a part of the narrative. The IPL isn’t just about batting, bowling or fielding abilities. Dhoni, although, stays an impressive wicketkeeper. His expertise and delicate fielding adjustments play a large function. There’s completely little doubt no person understands the on-field dynamics in an IPL sport higher than Dhoni.
The subject of Dhoni’s restricted game-time typically comes up in conversations with Chennai Tremendous Kings officers. Their normal reply is, “You possibly can by no means purchase expertise out there. It’s as much as Dhoni to resolve when he desires to go.”
There’s one factor, nevertheless, that must be made clear — Dhoni doesn’t permit himself to be a legal responsibility on the sector. If we take a look at his IPL 2024 stats, we’ll see that he has scored solely 167 runs in 14 video games, however his common is 53.66 and strike-rate a ridiculous 220.54.
In truth, the concern issue that Dhoni nonetheless generates on the back-end of an innings is unmatched. If we return to CSK’s final sport towards RCB in 2024, Dhoni virtually pulled off a miracle chasing an enormous rating, till the ball needed to be modified when a six that he hit off left-arm pacer Yash Dayal within the 20th over vanished exterior the bottom. The brand new ball was dry and exhausting, Dayal bought some further bounce and induced an edge off Dhoni’s bat that completed CSK’s hopes of qualifying for the playoffs.
Had CSK made the last-four stage, there was a chance that it might have been Dhoni’s ultimate IPL outing. The qualifier and the ultimate have been in Chennai and Dhoni would have gotten an opportunity to maintain a promise that he had made to his followers a couple of years in the past: “I’ll play my final IPL match on the MA Chidambaram Stadium.” Dhoni doesn’t at all times make guarantees, but when he does, he tries to maintain them.
The IPL administration, too, has performed its half to make sure Dhoni will get a shot at fulfilling his promise. They tweaked a retention rule, permitting a participant who retired from worldwide cricket 5 years in the past to be retained for Rs four crore forward of the large public sale. The beneficiary, clearly, was CSK and Dhoni.
The legend, although, is making an attempt his finest to be in the very best form for this IPL. He was one of many first to reach in Chennai a couple of month in the past and has been coaching exhausting. The information that filters out of the camp means that his physique is in higher form than the place it was final 12 months. The batting, too, isn’t going badly.
New CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, too, has settled in nicely and there appears to be a core in place for the subsequent few years. Nonetheless, Dhoni stays the ‘tremendous boss’ of the crew. Come the 19th over of a decent sport, it’ll nonetheless be MSD making these subject adjustments and Gaikwad will most likely man the long-off boundary.
Not that the CSK diehards will thoughts one bit. It’s a love story that they don’t need to finish, come what might.
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