By the time the Ahmedabad atmosphere started silencing down after the game between Gujarat Titans (GT) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), the only noise still disturbing the calm came from an unusually large crowd that stayed even after the game was done and dusted, and after MS Dhoni led his side to give table-toppers GT a stinging defeat. “Dhoni, Dhoni,” they were chanting. It sure was the end of Chennai’s campaign this year, which had been nothing short of woeful. It was also potentially, perchance, maybe, the end of an entire era.
But Dhoni didn’t seem too bothered. He never does.
“It depends. Again, I would say the same thing: I have four-five months to decide, there’s no hurry to decide what needs to be done,” he said with his usual calm demeanour when asked if he will don the yellow again next season.
If it was his last game, which only time and a few bike rides will tell, there was no farewell ceremony or a long teary speech, or even a lap of honour. But what CSK managed to present to him instead was an 83-run win against a team that has hardly stumbled this season. Dhoni knew, though, that ending the season on a high note doesn’t vanish the lows they have been seeing the entire season.
“We didn’t have a very good season, but good to finish on a good note. I think this was one of the perfect performances, from the bowling department, batting department, not to forget the fielding and catching. Throughout the season, I don’t think we have caught very well, so this was one game where the catching was also good.”
But for the crowd still lingering around to hear Dhoni deliver ‘the news’, results were always going to be secondary.
“Every year, it’s 15% more effort to keep the body fit, not to forget this is top-level cricket,” Dhoni, who will be nearing 45 by the time next IPL starts, said. “It’s professional cricket, you have to be at your best, and it’s not always performance that you can count on, because if cricketers start retiring because of performance, then a few of them will retire when they’re 22.
“What is important to see is how much hunger you have, what kind of fitness you have, and how much you can contribute to the team, and whether the team needs you or not. So I have enough time. I will go back to Ranchi, haven’t been home for a long time, enjoy a few bike rides, [take a] couple of months, and then decide.
“I’m not saying I’m done, I’m not saying I’m coming back. As I said, I have the luxury of time. When you have the luxury, then why not think about it and then decide?”
There’s a weight to that. And also a gentle nudge that cricket isn’t always measured merely through runs and wickets, but sometimes in intangibles. Dhoni, for one, has always dwelt quite a bit on those intangibles.
Introspection and bike rides are both very Dhoni, but there is another thing that makes him the revered cricketing goliath he is, and that’s the optimism he offers only when he fully means it. CSK’s younger players, including Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis, Shaik Rasheed, Urvil Patel, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, and Anshul Kamboj, all showed that all is not lost for CSK. Despite seeing their home fortress crumble to the ground. Despite ending with the wooden spoon.
“When we started the season, we played the first four games at home out of six. We won tosses, [and] we decided to bat second because there was a fair amount of dew, but I felt the wicket was better to bat first somehow. In the second innings when we batted, we were under a bit of pressure, and that confidence got sucked away from the batters and that became slightly difficult for us to come back.”
“I was more worried about the batting department; at the end of the day, you have to score runs,” he said. “But now, looking at how everybody is contributing, we look like a side who can put runs on the board, and the maneuvering with the bowlers becomes slightly easy.”
But the strategist in him knows what the side lacks, and he is glad Ruturaj would not have to do much patchwork once he returns to captain the side next season.
“Yes, there are still a few holes that we would like to fill,” he added. “But one of the most important things was when Rutu comes back next season, at least we are able to give him a team where he just needs to fit in maybe one in the playing XI and he doesn’t have to worry about too many things.”
