[1]Consider MS Dhoni’s workload: Captain of the Indian cricket team in all the three formats of the game and skipper of Chennai Super Kings in IPL. He is the only player apart from Virat Kohli, R Ashwin and now R Jadeja who are regulars in the playing XI of all the three formats of the game. But being a wicketkeeper-batsman and captain of Team India, Dhoni scores over his other teammates in terms of fitness, stamina and longevity in the game.
So, when Dhoni has to miss out captaining the team during the West Indies innings in India’s opening match of the tri-series in the island nation due to cramps, it came a bit of a surprise because Dhoni perhaps never ever has had to sit out of any innings due to fitness issues. And he has never missed a match due to injury, though he has been banned for a Test for slow over rates. It later turned out that Dhoni has suffered a hamstring injury.
Dhoni has hamstring injury: BCCI
Being a wicketkeeper, Dhoni can’t even take a 2-over break for nature’s call during an innings. And consider the amount of sit-ups Dhoni has to do in ODIs and Test cricket. In an ODI, Dhoni has to do sit-ups a minimum of 300 times, while in Test cricket if the opposition team bats out the whole day, the captain cool must have done the exercise a minimum of 540 times in a day.
Truly, Dhoni is the ‘superhero’ of Team India, managing his workload with little crease on his forehead. In the fourth Test against England last year, Dhoni proved what he’s made of when after doing wicketkeeping duties for 145 overs, he batted for 398 deliveries (66 overs) and was there in the middle for close to 100 overs for his 99 runs. He came back to do wicketkeeping duties for another 154 overs in England’s second innings. Barring for 31 overs or less than half a day, Dhoni was there in the middle for all the 5 days during that Test.
And captaining Team India is perhaps an even more difficult job than that of a PM of this country because cricket is considered to be the religion of India where every second person has an opinion on it. If Dhoni’s move to promote himself up the order in the ICC World Cup 2011 final had backfired and India had lost the match, the Jharkhand player’s strategy would have been ripped apart at every nook and corner and by every cricket lover in this country.
To think of wicketkeeper-batsman who have done well for their country with the bat and behind the stumps, Dhoni tops the list as he’s also captaining a team that is so loyally followed all over the world. Australia’s Adam Gilchrist excelled in his game, but was never burdened with captaincy, while Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara chose to be relieved of captaincy and sometimes wicketkeeping duties to concentrate on his batting.
But Dhoni chose to revel in all the duties he has been bestowed upon and this cramps, which has just come out of the blue, must probably be due to lack of ‘ghar kee daal roti (home food)’ that has kept the captain cool fit and running over the years.
West Indies beat India by one wicket in an exciting finish
Tri-Series: India vs West Indies Highlights
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/dhoni1jpg-797