MS Dhoni will turn 44 this July. If the inventor of the helicopter shot is to be believed, he’s still not done yet. At 43 , he is captaining Chennai Super Kings. Media reports hint at Dhoni’s possible return next season.

One important question that continues to gnaw at the edges of my mind is: shouldn’t this cricketing legend, who entertained fans for over a decade across all formats of the game, hang up his boots and quietly walk into the sunset? In this edition of the IPL, Dhoni, one of my favourite cricketers of all time, looks a pale shadow of his former self.

Like a once-mighty oak, Dhoni now stands weathered and worn by the passage of time. He hasn’t scored even a single fifty in this year’s IPL; he appears scratchy and tentative in his approach and he no longer dives regularly to his right or left to stop the ball from racing to the boundary.

In his twilight years, batting, once his superpower, has begun to resemble kryptonite. In his heyday, Dhoni's shots were like bespoke suits—impeccably tailored to charm the spectators, leaving hapless bowlers scurrying to hide their faces. His shots, now........

© Free Press Journal