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Rest assured, there is no rest; CL T20 is next slog for Dhoni

There is no time for rest, recuperation, refocus and recharge for Dhoni.

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MS Dhoni... No time for rest, recuperation, refocus and recharge © Getty Images
MS Dhoni… No time for rest, recuperation, refocus and recharge © Getty Images

 

By Madan Mohan

 

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has endured his worst assignment so far and by any yardstick – one of the most disastrous away campaigns in a long time for India. But there is no time for rest, recuperation, refocus and recharge as the Champions League (CL) T20 kicks-off on September 23, where Dhoni will lead Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) defence.

 

There will also be qualifiers played from September 19-21. However, defending champions CSK, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI) will not have to play the qualifiers. Joining these three teams will be New South Wales, South Australia, Cape Cobras and Warriors. The rest of the CLT20 league will be made up of three out of seven teams competing in the qualifiers.

 

It gives Dhoni an opportunity to regain lost ground in a softer competition. After all, none of the CLT20 teams can yet be truly described as international class and in home conditions, he should have an easier team shepherding his flock than in windy, cold England. On cue, Suresh Raina has struck some form in the ODI series in England and Dhoni would hope he carries that good nick in the CLT20.

 

What will also work in Dhoni’s favour – and, in fact, for every team other than RCB in the competition – is Chris Gayle’s prolonged absence from international cricket. When Gayle flew into RCB and swept away opposing bowling attacks, he was fresh from a World Cup campaign where he had produced good nick in patches. Since then, he hasn’t had much to do and watched from the sidelines as India won both the ODI and the Test series in West Indies. This may leave him rusty at least early on in the tournament and give rivals some breathing space.

 

On the other hand, his nemesis in the IPL, Ravichandran Ashwin hasn’t had the best of times in England. It will be interesting to see if that rubs off in a bad way on his performances in the CLT20.  With the monsoon yet to bid a final goodbye, just how conducive the pitches will be to spin also remains to be seen. It may have a telling effect on the strategies teams adopt in the CLT20. In that sense, there is more scope for things to go wrong and it may potentially be a more interesting tournament than the IPL, provided the rains don’t play spoilsport.

 

For a variety of reasons, though, the CLT20 hasn’t taken off nearly as well as IPL. Somehow, even under the watch of the then talismanic figure of Lalit Modi, the first edition went for a toss thanks chiefly to terrible pitches at the Ferozeshah Kotla, Delhi. After that, the second…I didn’t even notice when it was played. Just remember reading later on that CSK were the winners.

 

The CLT20 is obviously an important part of the business proposition that IPL franchise owners bought into.  It was supposed to offer a second window of commercial opportunity in the year for them and also hopefully expand global audiences for cricket in general and IPL in particular. But the CLT20 simply hasn’t stoked that kind of interest and has been a strangely low-key affair so far.

 

Without Modi’s marketing acumen to boost it, the CLT20’s visibility may not exactly shoot this year. That may be just what Dhoni needs right now. A series in which all scavenging eyes of the press aren’t trained on “Captain Cool” all the time and he can quietly go about picking up the pieces again.

 

A win here for CSK may not amount to much in the larger context of Indian cricket but a loss and, especially, another listless show from Dhoni will definitely be something to worry about.

 

(Madan Mohan, a 25-year old CA from Mumbai, is passionate about writing, music and cricket. Writing on cricket is like the icing on the cake)

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