Shamik Chakrabarty
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you’re mine, I walk the line — Johnny Cash
Andre Siddarth is lucky enough to sit next to his captain on Chennai Super Kings’ team bus. The young and the old recently had a conversation.
“I asked Andre, ‘how old are you?’ And he is exactly 25 years younger than me,” MS Dhoni told the host broadcaster after the game against Gujarat Titans on Sunday.
The other day, Rajasthan Royals’ Vaibhav Suryavanshi touched his feet. The southpaw is a teenager. Dhoni will turn 44 in July. “Definitely, you feel old,” he said. The question is: how old is too old?
Dhoni’s relationship with his IPL franchise is familial. He knows he will never get a nudge. From CSK’s perspective, their talisman has earned the right to choose his time. “It’s his call, we will never tell him anything,” Kasi Viswanathan, CSK’s chief executive, told RevSportz a couple of weeks ago. “If he takes a decision, he will inform us. He hasn’t told us anything.”
CSK rounded off their season with a comprehensive win against GT and after that, their skipper was asked about his future. This has been going on over the past five seasons. This time, although the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman stuck to his template, it somehow felt a little different, if you read between the lines.
“I’m not saying I’m done; I’m not saying I’m coming back,” said Dhoni. “I have enough time to decide. I will go back to Ranchi. I have the luxury of time.”
Transition has begun in earnest at CSK. The ‘dad’s army’ is making a gradual shift towards lowering the average age of the side. The likes of Dewald Brevis, Ayush Mhatre, Urvil Patel and Anshul Kamboj are going to be the future of the team. There’s a school of thought that there are still too many loose ends for Dhoni to quit now, especially after back-to-back fallow seasons. Then again, there’s a cricketing aspect to it.
His captaincy skills are never in doubt. He still remains pretty sharp behind the stumps, notwithstanding a dodgy knee. But the great man is no longer pulling his weight as a batsman.
Dhoni finished the 2025 IPL with 196 runs from 13 innings with a strike rate of 135.17. Last year, he had 161 runs from 11 innings at a strike rate of 220.54. He bats way down the order these days, sometimes at No. 9. So, in his case, it’s not about the hard numbers. It’s about the impact and this season, Dhoni the batsman, one of the greatest finishers in the history of the white-ball game, seemingly had a case of the Law of Diminishing Returns.
The game against Royals in Guwahati early into the season was a case in point. CSK couldn’t chase down 183 for victory and lost by six runs. Dhoni, coming in at No. 7, got stuck and scored 16 off 11 balls. Things didn’t change much towards the back-end of the tournament as well, against RCB at Chinnaswamy. This time, the CSK captain scored 12 off eight deliveries as his team lost by two runs, chasing 214 for victory. Dhoni made an honest confession after the game. “I felt I could have converted a couple of more shots and ease the pressure. So, I will take the blame for it.”
In the return-leg fixture against Royals in Delhi, he laboured to a 17-ball 16, as his team finished at least 15 runs below par. Yes, Dhoni had his moments, like his match-winning six in the final over against Andre Russell at Eden Gardens. But overall, he looked a pale shadow of his old self.
At CSK, it will never be a case of outstaying his welcome for Dhoni. But great players don’t disrespect the game. And by his own admission, CSK’s batting, after the mid-season changes, has started to gel. “It’s professional cricket, (and) you have to be at your best,” Dhoni said yesterday. “It’s not performances. What’s important is to see how much hunger you have.”
He gave a peek into the future. “I was more worried about the batting department. Now everybody has contributed. When Rutu (Ruturaj Gaikwad) comes back next year, he won’t have to worry about too many things.”
It’s time for a new beginning at CSK. Will Dhoni be part of it as a player? He has a mind of his own, but somehow his post-match comments yesterday felt like a valediction.
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