#365DaysOfWriting — Day 241

Well played, MSD.

Hold your horses – the man hasn’t hung up his boots for good. He’s just given up the captaincy. Who am I talking about?

But of course, MS Dhoni.

India’s most successful limited overs captain. In tests, he botched up post 2011, but he’s always maintained his wits about him in the shorter format. A World T20 title, a 50-over World Cup and a Champions Trophy – you can’t win ALL three purely on luck. We even reached the semis of the 2015 50-over World Cup, the final of the 2014 World T20 and the semis of the 2016 World T20. Not to forget the Asia Cup T20 win just prior to that.

MS Dhoni averages a staggering 50.89 in ODIs.

It would be foolish to think he doesn’t have a few good years of batting left in him. Stripped of the captaincy, he might just unleash one last burst as the murderous ODI batsman we know and love.

It’s a rather different story in T20s.

In internationals, he barely averages 36 at a strike rate of 123, with no fifties. A mere mortal would be extremely happy with that record, but this is MS Dhoni we’re talking about. Kohli could push him up the batting order in T20s – I’ve always felt he should bat at either 3 or 4. Now that Kohli is an established No. 3 in T20s (and ODIs), Dhoni HAS to bat at 4. No more pushing self down the order bullshit. I’m sure Kohli can exert some influence as captain…

I welcome your new innings, MS Dhoni. Thankfully, you didn’t leave this decision till the very end.

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