Finisher Dhoni under pressure

India's limited-overs skipper has struggled in his famed role in recent times

When Mahendra Singh Dhoni strode to the crease in the second one-day international against New Zealand on Thursday, India were tottering at 73/4. It was an ideal setting for the Indian captain to perform his designated rescue act in the backdrop of increasing pressure and a breathless audience. He succeeded only to an extent – his swagger turning to a stagger at the finishing line, raising questions over his aura.

In recent times, Dhoni’s role as a finisher has come under intense scrutiny, but it would be naïve to write him off. At 35, Dhoni remains the fittest among the Indian cricketers. One might argue over his slowing bat speed, but he has the strongest of legs. There are few who could keep pace with him over the 22-yard surface when sprinting for singles. Can you set aside his outstanding batting average of 51.01 in the ODIs, despite coming lower down the order?

However, the challenges Dhoni faces today are growing. His last half-century (92 n.o.) came in October last year in Indore against South Africa. He took retirement from Tests to prolong his one-day career, which limited his participation in international cricket. India’s last one-day series was against Zimbabwe in June. Before that, there was the Asia Cup T20 and Twenty20 World Cup in March-April preceded by the ODI series in Australia in January. 

In the current New Zealand series, one can see Dhoni having long batting stints at the nets, often chatting up with batting coach Sanjay Bangar, and attending even the optional sessions. He even showed up to train with his state team Jharkhand. He is looking fitter, and as Kapil Dev remarked the other day, is believed to have dropped 3-4 kgs.

Yet, what Dhoni misses the most in the current set up is a reliable companion who could allow him to play freely.  Earlier, he had Yuvraj Singh, who could push the scoring at his prime, and later Suresh Raina before his form slumped. Now there is none and that explains why he was keen to have Raina to shore up the inexperienced lower middle-order.

Even in Zimbabwe, he had to do with a second string side. Here, he is without R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, both of whom would have been a handy support. Such a scenario has prevented Dhoni from playing at No 4 position about which he became vocal following his Test retirement. With the Indian ODI team wearing an unsettled look since the 2015 World Cup, Dhoni, more often than not, has always found himself donning the finisher’s cap.

“It's a difficult — one because I always wanted to bat up the order and wanted to play a few more strokes but it's not an easy thing to do when you are batting and if people keep losing their wickets from the other end. You need some kind of a partnership. Ultimately, when you are chasing you just have to calculate according to that,” Dhoni said after Thursday’s six-run defeat in the second ODI.

In fact, Dhoni didn’t hold back his frustration after India’s chase fell away on the brink of victory. “When you are chasing a score like this it is important that you need to keep a few wickets because the runs were coming. Even if you need six or seven runs an over in the end, it can easily be achieved, but our problem was that we kept losing the wickets,” he said.

“In fact in the 41st over, we lost two wickets. It's not about one batsman, I felt throughout we lost wickets. Any batsman could have said that had I contributed 10 percent more we would have won the game.”

Perhaps a shuffle in the batting order might help. Perhaps  India could bring in Mandeep Singh to open with Rohit Sharma and get Ajinkya Rahane to bat at No 4. One can expect the playing XI for the third ODI in Mohali to undergo a few changes. Regardless, these are testing times for Dhoni, the captain, and also Dhoni the batsman.