Probably this question is in the mind of every cricket fan and specially those who admire Dhoni. Ever since team India’s exit from the world cup 2019 in the semifinal against New-Zealand, speculations were high about his retirement from the game. Eventually it did come as a surprise, almost after a year when he announced on the evening of independence day. He has a huge fan following all over the world and specially in India. People wanted to see him one last time on the cricket field but this could not be happened reason his own decision to remain unavailable for the selection early on and then this pandemic which has affected careers of many.

Fans after the disappointing news of retirement from international cricket were hoping to see their favorite cricketer in action in this edition of IPL. But fate had something different for him. Because of the COVID-19, initially the much awaited tournament was postponed for September and then the managing body was forced to organize it outside India. Finally it came to UAE but the new normal has forced the governing body to organize it in almost empty stadiums.

Excitement of IPL was surely not there. packed stadiums, loud music, cheer leaders and a hell lot of noise for every single run scored and every wicket fallen are missing. Even the players are not feeling the spirit of IPL, once they used to.

For CSK this year has been very bad right from the beginning. First the Raina controversy and then the exit of harbhajan citing personal reasons followed by below par performance of the team was enough to raise the eyebrows of the fans. Fans are shocked, they can’t believe this is the same CSK, they use to cheer for all these years. The charisma, the charm and the impact are missing on the field. Batsman are finding it difficult to hit the ball, bowlers are not striking and even the fielding is disappointing.

There could be multiple reasons for this rare failure of CSK. One point could be the fact that most of the players do not play at international level, either because they have retired or they haven’t been introduced at that level so far. Second the team has yet not been habitual with the wickets of UAE which are bit two paced and have posed problems for batsmen.

One more important reason could be the empty stadiums. Most of the teams when play in India, have a huge support from the crowd and with time players become use to it. And suddenly when they are asked to play in the empty stadiums, they might be finding it difficult as the atmosphere they used to play is missing. This situation may apply more on senior players like Dhoni, who whenever comes to the ground there is a big cheer from the crowd, no matter on which ground or city the match is being played.

For players, who hardly get a chance to play in front of the huge crowd, the situation might actually favor. Simply because they do not feel the nervousness of being watched and can play their natural game. We could see this absence of nervousness from some of the performances as well, like Rahul Tewatia’s five sixes in an over, Ishan Kishan’s powerful hitting and some brilliant catching by other young players. While players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Dhoni are just looking like a shadow of themselves. They might be missing that feel and atmosphere of the audience roaring in the background, cheering for every single run scored, every boundary hit and for every single stop in the field.

Yes there are some exceptions to this as well, like the power hitting of Chris Gayle is unaffected, ABD is hitting as if he never retired from the game, Pollard is striking every second ball miles away.

Good thing for India is young Indian talent is firing despite the conditions and the the challenges posed by the pandemic. The likes of Devdutt Paddikkal, Shubhman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, K.L. Rahul, Washington Sundar, Prithvi Shaw, and Jasprit Bumrah are some of the names which have done well in this edition.

The race is still not over for the CSK as your never know in cricket until the last ball is bowled. But going with the performance so far, chances of CSK making to the play-offs are dying and with that the career of Thala also seems to be setting like the sun.

We end this article with a question for the readers. Your reviews are always welcome.
All images source : Google Images