Who’ll finish after finisher finishes?
It’s fashionable to go after MS Dhoni’s head these days. A cry that has reached a crescendo after the last game in Kanpur where he failed to get the 11 runs needed against a 20-year old bowler in the last over of the game. Everyone wants him to go, no one is saying who will replace him. Is there anyone whose spot Dhoni is supposedly blocking who can come in and be the finisher? With Dhoni, India is at least reaching the final over of the contests, without him who knows what will happen.
Or to put in other words, what if Dhoni retires tomorrow? Will that solve Indian cricket’s problem of not being able to close the chases?
There is one player who can step up. He is already in the team. He has played 219 ODIs, just 47 short of Dhoni’s tally, and has made a name for himself as a finisher in the IPL. Dhoni keeps promoting, and protecting, him. He answers to the name of Suresh Raina.
It’s not going to be an easy job, of course. In the 189 innings Raina has played, only 40 times has he faced more than 50 balls.And he isn’t going to get that many now. If anything, it might release him from the self-created pressure against short balls and what not. An attacking Raina has looked far more in control than one trying to build an innings.
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Raina was anointed as a potential finisher more than two years ago. Initially he was tried at various spots up the order but he didn’t quite own them, and more importantly India found the likes of Virat Kohli who stepped up and seemed more at home in the top order. Raina started to find himself down the order. And in 2013, after a game against England, Dhoni said publicly that he is grooming Raina for the finisher job.
But has Raina justified that sort of confidence? He has shown ability of finisher in patches but at the time when Dhoni is under radar and criticism, it’s time for 28-year-old to stand up. That’s the thing that nags. It’s not as if one is trying to convert a lesser player into something bigger. It’s Raina we talking about. Every now and then, he has shown that he can do it. Out of 219 ODIs, he has batted 78 times at number five and 60 times at number six with a decent strike rate of 94.80 and 93.37 respectively. So he can do it.
Often, it has come with a little bit of mentoring help from Dhoni in the middle. Often, it has also ended prematurely. Like on Sunday. He came in after the fall of Rohit Sharma and tried to slog the third delivery, and ended up lobbing the googly to deepish mid-on. It was a game he could have finished off, but he didn’t.
He might have been tried out in the top order before but it’s clear that isn’t going to happen from here on. Especially when Ajinkya Rahane’s batting-order in the side is unsure. The openers, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, have already slotted themselves at the top while Kohli, who is permanent number 3, made way for Rahane in last game at Kanpur. Raina is the most experienced man at number 5 and 6 and the onus is on him to come out firing.
In 2014, when India went to England, Raina had crossed 50 only three times in 55 innings outside Asia, but he came back strongly thereafter. Since 2014, he has averaged 40.35 in 19 games. He talks a good game too. “If MS (Dhoni) decides to bat at 4 regularly, it will only benefit the team,” Raina said once. “It will make life easier for the batsmen to follow. He can build the innings with the top-order and accelerate with the lower-middle order. No.5 and 6 are not easy positions to bat at. You go out there and have to score 15 runs in five balls or 50 in 20 balls. It is a position that comes with a lot of pressure. You don’t get regular chances to bat long and even then if you don’t score big in three games, there is pressure from everywhere. At home I might not get a chance to bat, might get 10-15 overs or only 10 balls. But I am prepared for it.”
At 34, Dhoni knows that his time might be near and he is not a type of guy who will hang around for sake of it. And when that becomes a reality, India will have to look to someone else who can do the role for them. Raina can argue his case by saying he doesn’t get enough time in the middle, but if he has to replace Dhoni, and no other spot is up for grabs for him, time will be always short.
