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Why Has Dhoni Lost His ODI Mojo?: Aakash Chopra

Tibarn

By Tibarn
in Cricket Talk

The Dhoni Question  

48 members have voted

  1. 1. What should we do with Dhoni?

    • Let him continue down the order, and trust him to work it out and eventually bring down his dot ball percentage
      2
    • Drop him from the ODI squad
      32
    • Move him to the middle order, batting at 4, so he possibly can get in by the 25th over, if 2 wickets go down.
      14
    • Move him to the top order, so he has the power play to get in
      0

  2. 2. If Dhoni retires or is dropped, who do you want to see take over the LOI wicket-keeping position?


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Tibarn Community Regular

Tibarn

Posted
Posted (edited)

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/1108835.html

Quote

Dhoni's biggest strength was his ability to read the game and his belief in his own abilities. While he could hit sixes at will, he never allowed ego to come in the way of building an innings and of doing what he thought was right for the team. It is hard to recall a Dhoni dismissal where he played to the gallery and was out.

...

The things that separated him from some of the biggest hitters in the world were his judgement of ones and twos, and his possession of the lower-body strength needed to take runs with ease. And he did all this without playing the square cut and booming cover drives, or sweeping spinners. Not that he couldn't cut, cover-drive and sweep, but the nature of his game didn't allow him to use those strokes frequently.

His preferred method was to plant his front foot a long way down and work the ball into gaps. Once in a while, he went deep inside the crease but to either muscle it through extra cover or midwicket. You would rarely see him collect boundaries behind point or behind square against spinners. Dhoni's ability to hit sixes without even using his feet prevented captains from positioning fielders closer to the bat, and Dhoni used that threat to rotate strike. Of course, once in a while he would also go aerial.

The other, more impressive, aspect of Dhoni's modus operandi while chasing was to take the game as deep as possible. It's one thing to say that the best way to chase is to stay in the game for as long as possible, but it takes a lot to do it successfully. When you see the asking rate climb, you tend to panic a little; it takes only a couple of dot balls to force a batsman to manufacture a shot or attempt a non-existent run. The only way to stay sane in the last few overs of a critical chase is to have unwavering faith in your own abilities and in the knowledge accumulated through experience of pulling it off time and again.

dhoni.png

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Lately things have changed a little. Dhoni's dot-ball percentage has gone up by about 4% since 2015, and the percentage of singles taken in the middle overs has declined by 5% too. And while there's no change in his strike rate in the last ten overs, he is getting out more often in that period than he did a few years ago.

It's understandable that you can't do at 35 the things you did at 25. Reflexes tend to slow down, and you lose the gift of timing to hit the long ball right from the beginning of an innings. Dhoni has acknowledged these changes, and for two years he has made his intention to bat higher up the order quite clear. He needs more time to build now and accelerates later than he used to.

dhoni1.png

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Except England, all teams follow a particular pattern in ODIs - go slow at the beginning, keep wickets in hand, and then explode. Openers start cautiously and the top order scores at 5-5.5 runs an over till about 30 overs. From there, there's a tendency to treat an ODI as a T20, if there are seven or eight wickets in hand. If you fail to score 70 between overs 31 and 40 in such circumstances, you end up a little short, regardless of how much you made the last ten overs count.

Unless Dhoni gets to the middle by the 25th over, starting slowly is no longer a viable option for him. While chasing, he still plays the way he used to a few years ago, working slowly towards a crescendo, and he would pull off that finale almost every time in the past. It isn't happening often enough now, though.

Perhaps it's time to rethink the method and pace innings a little differently. Leaving it till the final over was an audacious strategy that only Dhoni could pull off, but since that's not succeeding very often, he might want to change gears and step on the accelerator a little earlier.

What do you guys think? 

 

Can Dhoni accelerate earlier in the innings. Can he somehow lower his dot ball percentage in the middle overs? Or do you think he is done/should move up the order/be dropped?

 

Vote in the poll 

Edited by Laaloo
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Dada's Army Newbie

Dada's Army

Posted
Posted

It's not just the ODIs. It's everything. The performance level has dropped off massively. Go back to even 2013 and see how comfortably he was swinging and hitting big boundaries. This hasn't happened in a long time. I can't remember the last time he really middled a six.

 

One of Dhoni's biggest qualities is his ability to objectively assess everything, even himself. He was a pioneer who demanded that youngsters be given chances and oldies be pushed out. At 36, I would be very surprised if he doesn't retire in the next few weeks. 

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rkt.india Grand Master

rkt.india

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Ankit_sharma03 said:

Drop him for few series, he needs a bit of shake up

He needs to go n work on his game n problem areas 

Dnt feel he has lost it, just a rough patch but u have to get out of it as well. 

Dhoni is 36 now. He will not be the force anymore. He was hand eye coordination player who packed. Now power is still there but is losing his hand eye coordination quickly. Break is only going to harm him even more. 

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SK_IH Newbie

SK_IH

Posted
Posted

all teams have started planning so well against him ,they dont bowl to his strengths and exploit weakness and dhoni with his diminishing abilities not able to outpower them

dhoni limited options against spinner especially away taking spinners also a big probelem which i dont see improving at this stage of his career

 

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sscomp32 Newbie

sscomp32

Posted
Posted

I want to see him bat at 4 regularly before deciding anything. If he struggles even there he should go. 

 

As for keeper and advisor. Pant is ready and kohli after running a few games like clueless chicken will learn how to manage the team. Right now he doesn't seem to be making an effort in changing/improving captaincy because he knows dhoni is there to help him out if he goes wrong. 

 

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Cricketics Contributor

Cricketics

Posted
Posted

I would like to see Ishan Kishan also in the scheme of things.

 

 

Pant can be ahead in the order in Test matches to replace Saha eventually and also Dhoni for now in ODI's,  but we need to also find a way to get Ishan Kishan some India A games and keep him around Indian team so Pant also has a competition for keeping slot once Dhoni goes permanently.

 

It is good to have a competition for wicket keeping slot between two young guns Pant and Kishan. 

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Sujithmb13 Newbie

Sujithmb13

Posted
Posted

Those who think he will reinvent like sachin did in the later stages are criminally underrating Sachin's balance and technique.That guy had the improvisation to get orange cap in ipl at the age of 37.He was straight driving siddle in that MCC vs row match.Dhoni is not like that.All his batting is on physicality and presence of mind.Uses power to clear the boundaries or runs fast to score singles.Everything Dhoni did was more of a science than pure art.

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