Is it twilight time for Dhoni?

By Gaurav Joshi

MS Dhoni might have stated his willingness to carry on until the next T20 World Cup in March next year, but his from during the IPL has started to fade in a similar manner as his form in the other two versions of cricket.

Nothing illustrates this more than his dismissals in the match against Kolkata Knightriders in Kolkata and the match against Sunrisers in Hyderabad. In both innings Dhoni was comprehensively bowled by spinners.

The balls might not have been extraordinary but the fact of the matter is that Dhoni had misread the full length balls. He was late on them and instead of going forward he went back only to see the ball ooze past his bat before he could get it down.

As many of the world noticed with Tendulkar, it was the full balls that created the most trouble. Even as Dhoni struggled with full length balls in shorter format, another ageing warrior on the other side of the world, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, was struggling to come forward to any balls pitched close to the stumps.

It is an indication that the hand eye co-ordination is slowly diminishing. If the length is misread the reflexes struggle to adapt which is resulting in batsmen slightly late on the ball. This was the case with Tendulkar, it is the case with Chanderpaul and now Dhoni seems to be struggling with it as well.

Along with his inability to keep out the good length balls, Dhoni has lost his ability to score from them. His “signature tune”, the helicopter shot, has virtually become extinct. The good balls such as the Malinga yorkers which Dhoni used to dispatch far and high now seem to hit only the bottom of his bat. The art of finishing has been missing for the last six months. Now it seems Dhoni has started to struggle with even keeping the good length deliveries out.

The T20 World cup is more than eight months away and given Dhoni’s current form he might not be a certainty about his place in the team, forget the captaincy.

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