If cricket is a religion in India — and it is! — believers today are extremely fickle of faith. The Men in Blue (and, occasionally, in orange) may have qualified for the World Cup semi-finals after an emphatic run of victories in the league stage, but both armchair supporters and former players (who double as commentators) have been unsparing in amplifying the fleeting failings of the team. In particular, they have picked on wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s “slow-paced” batting in the middle overs and in the death as the team’s single biggest infirmity. On social media platforms, there have been uncharitable memes calling upon Dhoni to retire instantly. And even in the commentary box, where wisdom and restraint have been at a premium, there has been uncharacteristic tut-tutting over Dhoni’s using up too many dot balls on the trot. In particular, the match against England, where Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav were seen as lacking in the intent to chance their arm in pursuit of a challenging target, has drawn censorious attention.
For those of us accustomed to seeing Dhoni as the peerless finisher, his inability in recent times to force the pace and score sixes seemingly at will induces anguish, for sure. But it’s also true that the criticism of ‘Thala’ on this count at this World Cup is overdone. For one thing, the pitches in England have turned slower after the first week or so, and many other teams have similarly struggled to build on solid starts. Initial expectations of an abundance of 350-plus scores have since been scaled back. In any case, blaming Dhoni alone for India’s middle-order batting weakness is unfair. Dhoni’s sense of match awareness, and his contribution in every aspect of the game, are intangibles that more than compensate for the occasional sub-100 strike rate. Here’s hoping he will let his bat do the talking, help India win the trophy once more with a last-over six, silence his overly chirpy critics — and retire like the champion sportsman that he is.