Mahendra Singh Dhoni:Raging against the dying light

The roof of the indoor nets at the SCG resembles that of a ballroom, with brightly-lit bulbs hanging like chandeliers. The eye-blinking brightness irritated MS Dhoni. Whenever the bowling machine spat out flighted deliveries, he would back away, rub his eyes and look grudgingly at the bulbs. Skipper Virat Kohli, who was batting at the adjoining nets, suggested that his predecessor bat from the other end, but Dhoni had a better idea. He asked the steward to switch off the bulbs over his nets, then turned back and quipped: “Abhi chai peene ka time hain!”
(AP Photo/file)
The roof of the indoor nets at the SCG resembles that of a ballroom, with brightly-lit bulbs hanging like chandeliers. The eye-blinking brightness irritated MS Dhoni. Whenever the bowling machine spat out flighted deliveries, he would back away, rub his eyes and look grudgingly at the bulbs. Skipper Virat Kohli, who was batting at the adjoining nets, suggested that his predecessor bat from the other end, but Dhoni had a better idea. He asked the steward to switch off the bulbs over his nets, then turned back and quipped: “Abhi chai peene ka time hain!”


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It was the ideal weather for a cup of piping-hot chai — outside the nets, a drizzle was streaming, a chilly breeze was brewing. A cup of chai, though, was far away. Dhoni’s eyes veered to his kitbag, all he could see were a pair of shoes, a neatly-folded sweater and a few bottles of energy drinks scattered around. He barked out instructions at the bowling-machine operator: “Leg-spin on leg-stump.” To most deliveries, Dhoni would step out, clamp his back foot away and lofted the ball inside out. He mistimed or miscued most of the shots. Rustiness perhaps, he hasn’t played any cricket since November. It was a strange stroke — very un-Dhoni. Such deliveries, these days, he would bunt through mid-on, or slog-sweep like he did so exuberantly in his youthful pomp. But these are stranger times for him, maybe not so much for the man himself as for those around him. But inescapable is Dhoni’s struggle with his batting, the batting of a diminished, ageing Dhoni. Relieving him of the short-form captaincy was considered a career-restoring elixir towards a twilight flourish.