When MS Dhoni was first appointed India’s captain, he brought something refreshing to the job. His decision-making was crisp, his demeanour was a version of calm never seen before, and his outlook was refreshing. Dhoni soon showed that he could wield an iron fist inside a velvet glove, by being firm with his captaincy calls, even those that would not be popular. Most importantly, he was a winner. The Indian team, and Chennai Super Kings, were both very successful under Dhoni.
He might have thought he was done with captaincy until fate brought him back into the hot seat in IPL 2025. However, his first match in charge was a far cry from his glory days – a eight-wicket thrashing at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders, with 9.5 overs to spare after CSK had limped to 103 for 9.
It had all been so different a decade and a half back.
Dropping Dravid-Ganguly and rotating Sehwag-Gambhir-Tendulkar
In 2008, Dhoni decided that Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, former captains and icons, were not well-suited to the demands of the one-day game, and they wouldn’t be up to scratch in the field either. He dropped them from a tri-series in Australia that India went on to win. The nucleus of that squad then went on to lift the 2011 World Cup.
A year later, in another tri-series in Australia in 2012, Dhoni played only two out of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir in all but the last league game. The reasons were similar to 2008. If Dravid and Ganguly were icons, Tendulkar was bigger than both of them combined. He was very clearly near the end of his career though, so the blow was softer. But it was still a very bold call, and the other two players – Sehwag and Gambhir – both made their displeasure with it quite vocal.
How would the Dhoni of 2008-2012 have treated the Dhoni of 2025?
Now, life seems to have come a full circle for Dhoni, the captain. He began IPL 2025 as just another player, even though he was still part of the leadership group at CSK. But Ruturaj Gaikwad’s elbow fracture meant Dhoni had to step back into the leadership boots.
If the early-years captaincy Dhoni was in charge of CSK, how would he have viewed Dhoni’s 2025 version? Would he have accepted a player who was nearing 44 years of age, and whose knees wouldn’t allow him to bat until at least three-quarters of the innings was done?
Would he have weighed what was brought by off-field leadership, and undoubted wicketkeeping skills, against the limitations brought by age The Dhoni of old was quite firm, almost ruthless, with ageing players. Would he have been as firm with himself?
The Impact Player cushion
What is in favour of Dhoni 2025 are two things: he’s playing T20s and not ODIs, so there’s considerably less time in the field. And the Impact Player rule allows him to bat later than usual because the batting line-up is lengthened. CSK’s squad construction has anyway been allrounder heavy, so most times, it’s not as if people of poor batting ability are being sent ahead of Dhoni.
His keeping still remains top-notch, and there’s undoubted value he brings on and off the field. If his batting can be managed most games – which is reasonable – he’s still a net positive in the XI. The problem comes, on the rare occasions when that doesn’t hold.
Dhoni in his first game back
While there wasn’t much Dhoni could do on the field defending 103, his choices when CSK were batting were puzzling. He chose to bat first on winning the toss, questionable in itself in night games, but when the batting was collapsing, he batted himself at No.9 once again. He could have come in at 65 for 4 in 11 overs to partner Shivam Dube.
Dhoni is more comfortable against pace than spin, but playing alongside a spin-hitter like Dube could have mitigated that somewhat. But Dhoni sent in R Ashwin, then Ravindra Jadeja. And then he Impact Subbed in a horribly out of form Deepak Hooda, who lasted four balls and didn’t score.
That meant CSK wouldn’t be able to bring in Matheesha Pathirana, a genuine strike option which would be sorely needed when defending a sub-par total. Dhoni came in when Hooda got out anyway. Having Pathirana might not have resulted in victory for CSK, but it could have at least made things a bit more difficult for KKR.
It is early days still in what could be Dhoni’s final tilt at captaincy. Maybe he just needs to get into the skin and mindset of the Dhoni of 2008 to bring about a change in fortunes.
