IPL 2021: Dhoni should be replaced by CSK right now – Here’s why

IPL 2021: Dhoni should be replaced by CSK right now – Here’s why

MS Dhoni with Suresh Raina ahead of IPL 2021

What comes to mind when you think of Chennai Super Kings? The colour, yellow. The city, Chennai. But most importantly, the stately figure of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The man is almost a God in those shores. If ever the platitude of cricket being a religion were true, it is here. And Dhoni is their undisputed chief God. His aura is so engulfing that when he stands tall, it could go all around the Cheapuk and stretch across the shoreline of the Marina Beach, providing shade in the heat of the blazing sun.

And that is exactly how it has been over the last 13 years. Dhoni has been a ceaseless source of solace for the CSK faithful. In fact, it would be no exaggeration to state that he is also the source of CSK’s nationwide popularity.

There is no corner of the Indian subcontinent where one would not find someone donning the yellow jersey during IPL season. There exists no stadium in India that would not cheer his arrival. Hands in gloves, adjusting his shades, the idiosyncratic twirl of the elbow and the stride of a general to occupy his spot behind the stumps. A bigger cheer if those gloves are twirling a cane handle with a flat fronted willow to accompany the majestic stride.

Dhoni is called Thala by CSK fans

The aforementioned references to shade and solace have been carefully chosen. Those are two words that closely define whatever little the person has let the world know of him. Reassuring, calm, and composed are other variations to the same end. Dhoni has been a bank for CSK and their fans. Over the years, he has been a constant in yellow.

Dhoni – the man with a yellow heart

In fact, he is perhaps the only one-team man who has played for another team. Although entirely by circumstance and the unfortunate collective culpability of team sport, he turned out for Pune for two seasons – 2016 and 2017. His heart, however, lay firmly on the coasts of Chennai.

“The way I got accepted and the whole of Tamil Nadu – whenever they see me they don’t call my name, they call me Thala”, Dhoni had remarked in 2019. The word ‘Thala’ means chief.

This undiluted adoration is not unrequited either. It is intensely mutual. There is no denying Dhoni’s extremely guarded persona. His unbreakable expertise in a chase is only trumped by his impenetrable fortress of an exterior. A personification of Rudyard Kipling’s description – he has always treated life’s every hurdle and hurrah as similar impostors.

Unperturbed by snubs in his early years. Tranquil in World Cup victory during his peak. Unflustered by criticism in his cricketing sunset. All cool in Dhoni’s pool; until CSK’s reinstatement in the IPL after two years. Dhoni in tears? It was a strange sight. Nothing broke him as much as CSK’s ban. Not a T20 World Cup win; not a Champions Trophy win; not a Test Championship mace; not even a World Cup victory at home!

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Dhoni and Sir Alex Ferguson

There is very little precedence to Dhoni’s connection with CSK in the world of cricket. The closest is in another sport and even then, not to a player. Dhoni’s association with CSK can be closely compared to Sir Alex Ferguson’s at Manchester United. And anyone with even the remotest knowledge of football, would realise that this statement carries weight.

For the uninitiated, here is a brief of the Manchester United manager. Sir Alex took over in 1986, at a time United were faltering in England. He changed the culture, the ethos, and the mentality of the club. When he retired in 2013, he was well ahead of his competition as the most successful manager in the game’s illustrious history. The manager won close to 49 trophies and made Manchester United the most popular football club in the world – a global money-minting behemoth.

Why the comparison then? Manchester United have not won a single league title since 2013. They had won 13 in the preceding 20 years. The club has been in free fall for the last 8 years, bar the odd brake. The problem was the lack of a succession plan to their game’s greatest ever. And Dhoni himself being a Manchester United fan will know how deep the nadir becomes all too well.

Dhoni and shaping CSK

Dhoni poses with the IPL trophy along with his wife and daughter

MS Dhoni at CSK is our game’s greatest ever. Even more so than MS Dhoni the India captain. CSK is his team. He neither claims ownership nor pulls his weight around, but everything at the franchise is assembled by him. It is different from most others. Delhi Capitals’ recent rise is a combination of a system created for Ricky Ponting to flourish. Kolkata Knight Riders’ golden run between 2012 and 2014 was similarly conjured. Mumbai Indians’ case is all of the above combined with imperious scouting.

CSK is different. They are the only team to have never changed their captain since the inception of the IPL. And if their succession plan is not drawn up in his presence, it will be too late. Dhoni has made it amply clear that he is not going away yet. That is as much respite as opportunity for the CSK management to sit down with their Thala and plan on finding a Thala for their next generation. There will perhaps never be another Thala but something close, or perhaps entirely different – as long as similarly successful.

Who next?

There are plenty of answers to that end. Maybe Kane Williamson, who is the closest available to Dhoni in mannerism and leadership. He is a mighty fine batsman too. Maybe someone we know not yet – Ishan Kishan. He fits the geographical and cricketing expertise mould. The wicket-keeper batsman from Jharkhand has led an Indian side before. He is now a capped India player and would thus pose a challenge for Mumbai Indians to retain given their wealth of Indian talent. Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah would all be higher in their preference list.

Ishan Kishan in action as MS Dhoni looks on

This may or may not be Dhoni’s last IPL, but it does not take a cricket expert to predict the end is nigh. The CSK captain cannot go on forever. It will, thus, do the franchise good to have their next leader in their current leader’s tutelage. Maybe even captain CSK with Dhoni around. This has happened before. The former India captain has never considered himself bigger than the cause. He played for his nation as a player under Virat Kohli. Not by coercion but by choice and a gaze at the future.

Dhoni’s greatness is as much a function of hard skills as foresight – timing being his absolute forte. And he possesses the enviable life skill of knowing when to let go. Is it time go altogether? Perhaps not; and he knows that better than anybody else. But is it time to let go selectively? Anybody’s guess; and, once again, Dhoni knows best.

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