Why Dhoni has lost his form and consistency with the bat
Why Dhoni has lost his form and consistency with the bat
By Baiju Joseph
The failure of captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni to come good with the bat in this World Cup is worrisome. That’s one of the reasons why the middle and lower-order has collapsed.
He has been guilty of getting out at crucial moments in the game and hasn’t able to bat with the authority he is capable of. Dhoni boasts a career batting average of nearly 49 in One-Day Internationals, but the past one-year hasn’t been very good for him as far as runs are concerned.
Since March 2010, Dhoni has played 22 matches, scoring just 513 runs at a modest average of just under 31 – way below his overall career average.
What has caused the dip in his form?
Dhoni averages nearly 77 in the 33 matches he batted at No. 3 and No 4. However, it comes down to 42 for the remaining 145 ODIs, while batting at No. 5, No 6 and No 7. This shows that he is not doing justice to his talents by coming lower down the order. But with the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina in the team, he has to bat down the order. But that has not helped him – and the team – one bit.
Last year saw him consolidate his position at No.6, resulting in his form dipping. However, his performances behind the stumps have remained consistent during this period, which have earned him a reprieve.
And if you thought the problems ends there, have a look at India’s schedule for the 2011-2012 season.
The IPL starts just six days after the final, and ends on May 28. This will be followed by full tour of the West Indies (1 T20, 5 ODIs and 3 Tests, Jun 8-Jul 10) of the Caribbean, which would be followed by a tour of England (4 Tests, 5 ODIS, 1 T20; Jul 22- Sep 16), with a gap of just six days from the last day of the Windies tour to the first day of the practice match against Somerset.
The action returns home with the English (1 T20 and 5ODI) and the West Indies (3 Tests and 5 ODIs) touring India in October and November respectively, after which India tours Australia for the defence of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (4 Tests) in December. Somewhere in between there is also a T20 Champions League to be played in Australia!
Dhoni has been on continuous cricketing duty since the tour of South Africa, which started last December, which was followed by the World Cup, with very little time to rest in between.
Dhoni would be expected to lead at least 90% of these future campaigns and if he manages to pull through this schedule without resting, I can bet it would be world record in itself!
Hence there is definitely fatigue looming large. It would be utterly cruel to expect him to deliver every time he wears the India colours, because he would be wearing them virtually every day for the next one year.
With the burden of expectations of a billion people, a weak bowling attack to marshal and his own batting hitting a trough, it would be interesting to see whether he can lift the team to victory while lifting himself from the depths of personal despair.
(Baiju Joseph is a Bangalore-based Junior Scientist at a Bio-Informatics firm who is deeply passionate about cricket and likes to bowl fast whenever he gets an opportunity to ply his cricketing skills