There have been rumors floating around in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) about the 40-year-old star cricketer’s retirement after IPL-2021 which seems realistic now that he has played the 300thmatch and also winning the title, creating a moment of glory in leaving. However, the unpredictable, as far as retirement is concerned, cricketer has denied all rumors and made it clear that if not as the captain of CSK he’d continue to be available as a player. After the final encounter of the IPL-2021 MS Dhoni also said that with two new teams coming for the auctions for IPL-2022 the best of interests for CSK would naturally be kept in mind and the Indian cricket board BCCI would be the final authority to decide on his position or place in the team. If he retires indeed then we have seen the last of the MSD here in Dubai, and unfortunately we missed seeing him bat as it was not necessary for him and there was also the rare drop of a catch behind by someone who is never known for such lapses. But fortunately, we had again seen him in the role of a ‘finisher’ in the Qualifier-1 where he hit the required 13 runs in the last over to take CSK straight into the Final, defeating DC (Delhi Capitals), the top team in the points table.
As for the IPL-2021 Final Dhoni’s CSK almost sealed the encounter when its top four batsmen took the winds out of KKR—the batting explosion led by opener Faf du Plessis with 86 runs off just 59 balls and significant contributions by opener Rituraj Gaikwad, Robin Uthappa and Moeen Ali—posted a mammoth total of 192 runs on the board. KKR, the team that performed brilliantly in the UAE leg of the tournament, basically consists of 5 or 6 contributing players—the two consistent openers of Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer, the three spinners of Narine, Chakravarthy and Shakib (a late addition in the absence of the unpredictable Andre Russel), and pacer Mavi, at times joined by batsman Rana. All others, unfortunately, were more of liabilities than assets including most prominently the KKR captain Eoin Morgan and wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik—their glaring inability to lead the team when required. In the Final too, despite an opening partnership of 91 runs in good time, the following batsmen failed miserably including Narine on whom the team depends as a batsman too. Also, the point to be mentioned here is that KKR played most of their matches in the relatively sluggish pitches of Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, and won mostly low scoring matches, their trio of spinners and Mavi restricting the oppositions to less than 150 most often. The high-scoring match on an easy pitch the CSK total score was literally beyond KKR standards.
The MSD phenomenon has been getting tremendous praise both nationally and internationally by famous cricketers. He has earned the title of ‘Captain Cool’ for his simplicity and easy manners on the field, and is also known for his ‘helicopter shot’ signifying his raw hitting power and unorthodox approach to the game. He initially started as a lower order batsman, but was promoted to the top order thanks to his prowess and utility, and then settled more or less as a middle-order batsman. He has been given the honor of figuring in the ICC World Test IX 3 times as captain, a record 8 times in the ICC World ODI IX of which 5 times as captain of the team along with ICC ODI Player of the Year in 2008 and in 2009. In India, the modest boy from Ranchi won Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2007, Indian civil honors Padmashri in 2009 and Padma Bhushan in 2018.
The MSD phenomenon has not been without its share of ups and downs, criticisms, controversy and unpredictable behavior. He suddenly laid down his captaincy from the ODI format ahead of a series in 2017 making himself still available as a player. More dramatically, he announced his retirement from Test cricket amidst a Test Series in Australia in 2014-15 leaving it all to Virat Kohli to handle. He retired from all formats of international cricket on 15th August, 2020, perhaps prompted by his famous run-out against New Zealand in the semi-final of the ICC Cricket World Cup-2019 thus failing to ‘finish’ the match, and the aftermath of his non-selection for the international matches by the BCCI. Dhoni had also been criticized by his moves to oust the stalwarts of Team India one by one bringing in new blood, of course seemingly favoring some players, and of late for his inability to accelerate in batting. In the aftermath of the World Cup-2007 disaster for India Dhoni’s Ranchi residence was vandalized by perhaps disappointed fans. His IPL franchise CSK was involved in a bitter match-fixing controversy that started in 2013 for which the franchise was banned for two years in 2015, and Dhoni was purchased by Pune for one year after that. In 2018 he came back to lead CSK again and won the third Championship title that year.
