Rising Pune Supergiant have done themselves no favour by pushing the former India captain into a corner.
It's amazing to note just how fickle public perception towards cricketers in India can be. It takes little time for a superstar to turn into a has-been. Case in point - Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
The 35-year-old has been the be-all and end-all of Indian cricket for the better part of the last decade. Be it his ingenious captaincy, or his game-changing batting, MSD always led by example. But it hasn't taken long for him to become just another player trying to make a mark.
Dhoni's run with the bat for Team India over the last year or so wasn't really poor, having scored a classy ODI century against England a few months ago. He might not have been the leader of the pack anymore, what with Virat Kohli setting the world ablaze, but the man from Jharkhand was still a major force to be reckoned with.
It all went downhill for Dhoni, though, when Sanjiv Goenka decided to unceremoniously take away the captaincy of Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) from him. The RPS owner didn't mince his words while emphatically claiming that MSD had not been professional in his dealings with the franchise.
That the new captain would be the high-flying Steve Smith further gave an indication that the Dhoni era had well and truly ended. Since the inception of the tournament back in 2008, Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 was going to be the first time the veteran wasn't going to step on the field as a captain.
Goenka's reasons might have been valid, but there's no doubt in the fact that his conduct wasn't. A little respect towards a man who has been an exemplary servant of Indian cricket wouldn't have hurt anybody. Goenka's attempt at trying to tarnish Dhoni's image in the public spoke more about his own character than anything else.
While the keeper-batsman chose to not react at that time - which wasn't at all a surprise considering his non-confrontational nature - the effects of Goenka's words have been there for all to see since the start of IPL 10.
Dhoni looked a pale shallow of himself in his first four outings with the bat. Scores of 12, 5, 11, and 5 say little about the extraordinary talent the man possesses. Let's not fool ourselves, his problem isn't age or fitness. Anybody who has followed his career will know that this is probably the sharpest he's ever looked.
The issue is elsewhere. In his head, to be precise.
Someone who boasts of a career strike-rate of 123 in T20 Internationals has been struggling to score a run-a-ball in this year's IPL. Dhoni's modes of dismissal haven't been worrying, it's the forlorn look on his face as he struggles to get going on the crease that's saddening.
Let's face it, the man has had to sustain major alterations in his life over the past few months. From bidding goodbye to his position as captain of India's limited overs sides, to later being pegged down by his IPL franchise, Dhoni has endured a lot to not be in a great frame of mind.
During the prime of his career, MSD would set the pace of an innings. He would build slowly by rotating the strike at will, and then explode towards the end at just the right time. As of today, though, getting each run seems to be a struggle for him.
To make matters worse, Sanjiv's brother Harsh has tried his best to rub salt into Dhoni's wounds. His pathetic posts on social media, belittling the former India captain, have been met with widespread outrage.
The need of the hour is to do the exact opposite of what Harsh has been doing. To give some confidence to Dhoni. Throw a challenge at him, and see what the champion produces. By sending arguably the best chaser in the history of the game way down the order, RPS are doing themselves no favour.
We all know what MSD can do once he gets going. He gave a glimpse of that on Sunday when he smashed a six out of the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium and stumped AB de Villiers with lightning speed. His skill cannot be doubted. Not yet, surely.
For a man who has achieved pretty much everything that the game has to offer, won every title that he has competed for, to have to prove himself all over again is pitiful. It's time RPS brings back the real Dhoni.
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