End of an era but no turmoil

It was coming, the resignation. There were questions being asked for a while. Will he? Won't he? And increasingly, when will he, too. But like a typical MS Dhoni finish, he kept everyone guessing till the end.

Is he going to hit it for a six? That allegory would have fit had the resignation come, say, he had announced it after winning a possibly second Champions Trophy in England, which is just about five months away. But it came as abruptly as his retirement from Tests. Not the big six that he is famous for as a batsman, but a possibly calculated move, which defined him best as a captain. For Indian cricket, an old cliche will echo loud, this is the end of an era. The end of their brightest era in the formats that Dhoni has just renounced captaincy from. It ends also what is Dhoni's biggest legacy.

It was an era that began in 2007 when a long-maned Dhoni first announced his presence as captain by leading an unfancied team to World T20 glory. The ramifications of that win changed Indian cricket forever. The 2011 World Cup win, a result of careful long-term planning, and now immortalised in a movie about the man himself, established him as a legend for his country. The 2013 Champions Trophy win put him as a captain that the world started recognising as one of the best of all time.

Whenever Dhoni hangs up his boots completely in the future, it is safe to say that the moments that defined his career are now behind him. The timing of the decision will be up for debate. Dhoni leaves neither at a time when the ODI team is still fully reliant on his captaincy skills nor when there is no clear successor in sight. Virat Kohli's emergence as a captain would have made the decision a little easier. That it comes two days before the team for India's series against England, their last before the Champions Trophy, allows for the new captain to get some settling time before the big tournament.

India's ODI schedule in the lead-up to the Champions Trophy has not been as meticulously designed to acclimitise or plan for as was the case for the 2011 or the 2015 World Cups. The 2019 World Cup, to be played in England, might be a more realistic target to work towards now. But that's for later.

For now, India still have Dhoni the batsman and wicketkeeper available for selection for the upcoming ODIs and T20Is. It is the former, as Dhoni has repeatedly mentioned, that has been curtailed in recent years. Whether he plays higher up the order or not is still a question that doesn't have a concrete answer. But that decision is not in his hands anymore. The team will play him where they see fit. Virat Kohli is the most obvious choice to takeover the reins in the limited-overs as well. He's a man who has gelled well with the core of the team that plays Tests as well. And he too, like Dhoni, is a man with his own vision. While Dhoni's captaincy strategies were best-defined by how he operated the squeeze with his (sometimes limited) bowling resources and manufactured wonders for India along with a power-packed batting unit, his successor might still go with different plans.

But what this might just give Dhoni, the batsman, is a last wind. Freed up from the responsibilities that saw him change from colored streaks to grey-hair, the focus, his own and that on him, will hit a rewind. We might yet see a lot more of those last-over duels that rise the thrills. Or we will see a complete ODI batsman finally getting to nurture innings and showcase his lesser-seen skills. Either way, the end of the captaincy era doesn't necessarily mean that this can't be the start of another small one.

There are interesting times ahead for the stakeholders of Indian cricket. In the first few days of 2017, the president and the secretary of the BCCI were forcefully removed from their positions, triggering a chain of resignations from other leaders of member boards. The churning over was understandably the biggest talking point in cricket. The biggest of this leader-upheaval in Indian cricket though was clearly Dhoni's. But unlike the chaos that has ensued off-field, Dhoni's exit doesn't leave the team in turmoil. There are clear and defined paths that can be traversed. As much as there is for Indian cricket to feel blessed about Dhoni's captaincy, this too will leave them thankful.