THE FUTURE
The game of cricket have seen lots of evolution in the last few decades. We have already seen the powerful strikers like Shewag, Afridi, Gilchrist etc who smashed the importance of foot work, placing and timing into trash bin. The brutal power had been creating nightmare for the bowlers.....
A change is welcome in every field, and a welcome change is what Mahendra Sing Dhoni brought for the Indian team which never really had a wicket keeper batsman who could bat. Nayan Mongia, Saba Karim, Vijay Dahiya, Deep Das Gupta, Dinesh Kartik, Parthiv Patel - these may seem to be a long list, but none of these keepers were real batsmen, and this was the only reason for Rahul Dravid to keep the wickets in the World Cup.
THE POWER
If you have played any cricket games, the two sentences you will keep hearing are ’’showing the full face of the bat’’, and ’’right off the middle of the bat’’. But as long as the smashers like Dhoni are concerned, these are no longer valid. He just need to make connection between the bat and the ball and the power itself can make the ball travel to the boundary at a high pace.
This display of power may have started in Indian cricket with Virender Shewag, even if we did see Sachin Tendulkar hitting some huge sixes and Saurav Ganguly hitting them out of the stadium. Shewag even introduced the same trend in the test matches, thus speeding things up.
INDIAN GILCHRIST
These days, even after being compared to Australia’s Adam Gilchrist, Dhoni has managed to have his own style, which is not the same as Afridi’s attempt to touch the sky, nor Jaysuriya’s stretching towards the ball. He just seems to play his shots with an ease, which makes the opponent bowlers look like stupids, even the most experienced bowlers seem to be caught between a rock and a hard place.
In the recent series against Pakistan, Dhoni was the real hero, even if Yuvraj shined through out the series. Dhoni gave India the boost that they needed, a feeling that there is some body who win the match alone, even after coming in the lower order. He just seemed to smash the ball as if it stops in the middle, waiting for him to hit it. Getting 1000 runs at an average of about 50 and a strike rate about 100 is more than just an achievement. He does deserve a spot high in the batting order, certainly over the out of form Kaif.
MASTER INNINGS
His 124 ball 183* against Srilanka was an amazing innings, where he not only hit the maximum sixes by an Indian cricketer, but also equalled the record of Saurav Ganguly, his 183 coming against the same team at Taunton, England. This just happens to be the highest score by a wicket keeper batsman in ODIs, beating the master, Gilchrist himself. His quick 148 against Pakistan is also worth the mention, as it came in very less time (His highest score in tests also happens to be the same, and he has scored in tests at an average of 45-50).
The Indian Gilchrist have set new examples for batting as well as wicket keeping. He may be the only competitor for the position of best wicket keeper batsman against Gilchrist, even if Akmal, Sangakkara and Boucher are good enough batsmen. If Rahul Dravid had still been keeping, the situation may have become like this - ’’Anyone can be a wicket keeper’’, but from the moment, this man set his foot in the team, Indian team just didn’t seem to be the same.
A SPECIAL PLAYER
Hitting sixes is not something that matters the most, but ending up in the winning side, and knowing that you had been instrumental in the victory, may be what makes a player feel special. Dhoni has managed to finish the job for India, and he just never gave up the fight, even when the run rate was too high and the team was in pressure - he kept his cool and played his natural game - this is where he is different from the other players.
With India having lots of corruption, and all kinds of bad things happening in the BCCI, supported by some idiots at the top, Dhoni may be the only good thing that has happened to India in the previous few months. There is no wonder if you are a fan of Dhoni, or start supporting him instead of the legendary players like Sachin Tendulkar. This shows how big a force, this wicket keeper batsman happens to be now.
A ROLE MODEL
He is extremely fit and runs very fast between the wickets and we could see his energy when he chases the ball and throws it back. He looks solid behind the wickets, almost like a wall, but I still think that no one is as good as Gilchrist behind the wickets. Dhoni is still the best, considering the fact that Partiv Patel has got gloves with holes.
Dhoni, who started his first class career in 1999-00 didn’t seem to get noticed for a long time, may be because the fans had bigger players to support. But once, this man got going, there were just no breaks. Even if he has made all this progress, he still hasn’t played on a pitch where the bowlers rules the match and the batsmen keep jumping around.
The fact is that Dhoni had been playing all the time in those lifeless pitches with low support for the bowlers, and also with very quick out field. Lets see how he fares in the different conditions.....well, the best thing I heard about him is that he likes PC games, may be this is what inspired me to write this review, along with the fact that I used to be a wicket keeper while playing cricket in my neighbourhood, and that long hair which I am also trying to have.....
THANKS FOR READING THE REVIEW. KEEP COMMENTING.....