MS Dhoni turns 35: Was 2011-12 the worst phase of his career?

MS Dhoni may have reiterated a gazillion times that he is not retiring anytime soon. But when his chequered career will come to an end, is the one of the most intriguing questions in Indian cricket. Dhoni will, after all, stop somewhere, maybe sometime soon, and leave behind a legacy so rich that his successors will have tough time dealing with it all. Till then, he will continue to lead in ODIs and T20Is — though there are a very few till March 2017 — and who knows how long will he continue. ALSO READ: MS Dhoni’s Top 10 innings in ODIs

But the end is impending. Dhoni has retired from Test cricket, and somewhere, Virat Kohli’s ascension will take place. India will need their team to be completely ready for the two big ICC events that are lined up — ICC Champions Trophy 2017 as well as the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 (both in England). And India will need the core group up and running for these two tournaments as well.

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The focus has been on Dhoni and the way he has gone about his job in recent years. Till 2011, he had the Midas touch. Dhoni had a T20 World Cup, a 50-over World Cup, two IPL trophies and a tournament win in the Champions League T20 (CLT20). But the invincible run ended stunningly, the 91 not out in World Cup final saw Dhoni playing an innings of a lifetime, and it marked the beginning of a phase so tough, he could never really recover completely from it, at least in Test cricket. ALSO READ: When Dhoni was asked by Lara to walk off

Dhoni’s team not only lost in England in 2011, they were annihilated on every front. His men were blanked 0-4, they had surrendered the top spot in Tests and in the ODIs, and they were humiliated as well. Perhaps the most embarrassing of them all was the ‘donkey’ remark made by Nasser Hussain at a team whose captain has only redefined fitness standards on cricket field.

If England tour was a bad dream, Australia tour later that year turned out to be a nightmare. It will be tough to ascertain what was worst: the humiliation in England or the obliteration Down Under. Of course, there were calls for revamp of the Test side, with critics harping on relentlessly over the sacking of Dhoni.

But this was not all. An easy win at home over New Zealand was followed by perhaps the most humiliating of them all — a Test series defeat to a side that has traditionally succumbed on spinning tracks at home. England’s 2-1 victory in 2012 was perhaps the lowest point in Dhoni’s career as Test captain. No Indian side had looked as meek, directionless and lacking fight as Dhoni’s side did in that series.

In this phase, the greats bowed out. Rahul Dravid called it quits after Australia tour 2011-12, and VVS Laxman did the same right at the onset of the New Zealand series. Among bowlers, Dhoni’s most trusted weapons in Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh had already fizzled out on England tour 2011.

All that Dhoni was left with was richest of cricketing legacies, a bunch of talented youngsters and the massive responsibility of getting Indian team back on track. A lot of damage was already done by opponents, and the heartless media, critics and even fans did not leave a quarter in lambasting Dhoni for every wrong step.

This is why, perhaps, Dhoni’s fantabulous 224 at Chennai in February 2013 against a dangerous Australian side remains his best knock in Test cricket. Not because of the sheer numbers that he gathered — for that matter everything has a limited relevance — it was Dhoni telling the world that the worst was past him and Indian Test side, and he was laying the foundations for the team to rebuild.

And a 4-0 ramming of Australia was indeed a terrific start.

(Devarchit Varma is senior writer with CricketCountry. He can be followed on Twitter @Devarchit)