Burden of reputation on MS Dhoni

India’s Mr Captain Cool has a reputation to live up to. And this sits like a millstone around his neck.

The die was cast for MS Dhoni as soon as he led the team to a title triumph in the inaugural World Twenty20. More than the victory, it was the manner in which he panned it — the means to the end — that stuck out.

On that distant day, in a pressure-cooker like atmosphere, the final against arch-rivals Pakistan was heading towards a nail-biting finish.

Skipper Dhoni, who seemed remarkably composed in contrast to the rest of the players, nonchalantly tossed the ball to Joginder Sharma, a virtual novice in international cricket.

He not only induced a false stroke from Pakistani Misbah-ul-Haq, but bowled India to a famous victory.

Much was written about that audacious Dhoni move. While some called it a desperate ploy by a hopeless gambler, others hailed it as an inspired move.

There were critics who believed Dhoni went by a ‘gut feeling’. Yet, others believed that the strategic introduction of Joginder lulled Misbah into lowering his guard and playing into the Indian team’s hands. Whatever the conclusions, one thing was certain: the force (to use Star Wars parlance) was with Dhoni.

There are plenty of such Dhoni captaincy moments to recall. But one other will suffice to bring the essence of our Captain Cool.

India were chasing a target of 268 against Pakistan in the Asia Cup event in Sri Lanka and there were plenty of frayed tempers, gesticulations, heated words exchanged and near scraps out on the field.

India had lost a couple of wickets under 90 runs and were in trouble when Dhoni decided to promote himself up the order and take control of the situation.

His calm, composed approach to the challenge rubbed off on his partner, Gautam Gambhir, and the pair added 98 invaluable runs for the third wicket to turn the tables on the Pakistanis.

Later, Dhoni, at the post-match press conference, revealed that he was just as anxious and excited as the other Indian players during the course of the nerve-wracking run chase. But his deportment during the game hardly betrayed this, either to his players or anybody else.

Dhoni’s dead-pan approach to the task was important, for all around him the pressure was getting to the players. His partner in the match-winning partnership, Gambhir, for instance, confessed that he had his “heart in his mouth” and he just “could not bear to watch the closing moments of the game.”

It was in such a situation, that skipper Dhoni, with his calm, collected and almost sphinx-like demeanour radiated a soothing effect on the team.

The players, charged-up and with adrenaline levels soaring, were spoiling for a fight that probably would have side tracked them from their goal of defeating Pakistan.

But with Dhoni at the helm, and calling the shots, none crossed the line. He helped ensure that they stayed focused and consequently there was no panic in the ranks.

The team almost always looked in control. And this, frankly, was so unlike Indian batting line-ups of the past when batsmen just collapsed under the pressure of a run chase.

These two instances epitomise the effect Dhoni could have on the team. In fact Robin Uthappa famously said after the World Cup T20 triumph that he would stand in front of a moving truck if Dhoni asked him to. So blind and unshakeable was his faith in his skipper.

Yet, this very same Dhoni made a blunder the other night by banking on a less-than match fit Ashish Nehra to bowl the momentous final over in the key game against South Africa.

It was a shocking piece of captaincy, especially when Harbhajan Singh, who at last was bowling really well, still had one over of his quota remaining. Harbhajan had already taken three wickets and the off-spinner logically would have been the ideal choice to bowl to the left handed Peterson.

The ball would have been spinning away from the batsman and the battle-scarred Harbhajan would have had a greater chance than Nehra to come good at that stage.

Alas! Dhoni put his faith in Nehra. And South Africa, who till then seemed to be playing out their role of eternal chokers, gleefully accepted the gift by spanking the bowler for 16 runs in four deliveries to post the win.

So why did Dhoni make such a big blunder?He is a very intelligent captain and it is unlikely that he did not know what he was doing.

The only explanation that seems logical is that he is trapped in his own hype and he sincerely believes that he ought not to keep it simple. He or his ego, if you will have it, suppresses his ability to work on expected lines. He will opt for the startling rather than the logical move in crunch situations.

This behaviour, in itself, is settling into a pattern. And that’s the worrying aspect of his captaincy. Dhoni, during the Twenty20 World Cup match against the West Indies at Lord’s in 2009, held back one over from his best bowler Zaheer Khan and that cost India the match.

The Harbhajan case against South Africa is almost an echo of that incident.

Still, Dhoni has a lot of positives as captain. The time for him to draw on that is now. He should ignore the hype and concentrate on the substance. After all it was the latter which brought him all his success and fame.

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