The new, improved Mahendra Singh Dhoni
How Mahendra Singh Dhoni has transformed himself from a tremendous boundary-hitter into a more rounded batsman who tailors his game according to the needs of the team
S Rajesh
February 22, 2008
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Mahendra Singh Dhoni started off as a six-hitter, but over the last year he has shown plenty of other skills as well © Getty images
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When Mahendra Singh Dhoni first burst onto the international scene in December 2004, the excitement was palpable, mainly because of his reputation as an immense six-hitter. Just five matches into his career, he proved that the hype was justified, smacking the Pakistan bowlers all around the park on the way to a 123-ball 148. A few months later, Sri Lanka were utterly helpless as Dhoni pummelled an unbeaten 183 from 145 off them. Along the way he created a new Indian record for
most sixes in an ODI innings, with six monstrous hits over the boundary. A new Indian star had well and truly arrived.
Fast forward to Feb 2008. With India struggling to overhaul Sri Lanka's 238 in a crucial
CB Series match, Dhoni knuckled down, eschewed the risks, ran like a hare between the wickets, and finished with a match-winning unbeaten 50 from 68 balls, without a single boundary, becoming only the
fourth Indian batsman to score more than 50 in an ODI without finding the boundary once.
That effort wasn't a one-off either. Over the last year or so, Dhoni's method has changed distinctly: from one where he would attack the bowling irrespective of the situation of the match, to one carefully tailored to suit the needs of the team. In his first two years in international cricket, Dhoni was the ultimate cavalier, scoring at nearly a run a ball, and getting more than 50% of his runs in boundaries. Over the last year, though, he has graduated into a far more mature batsman, gathering his runs with greater care. The reliance on boundaries has come down significantly, despite which the strike-rate remains impressive. In the last five months, since he took over as captain, the difference is even starker.
The different shades of Dhoni | Period | ODIs | Runs | Average | Strike rate | 4s/ 6s | % boundary runs |
| Till Dec 2006 | 59 | 1735 | 43.37 | 98.3 | 150/ 55 | 53.60 |
| From Jan 2007 | 43 | 1363 | 48.67 | 86.0 | 97/ 24 | 39.03 |
| As captain | 18 | 621 | 51.75 | 79.92 | 41/ 8 | 34.14 |
The table below compares the manner in which Dhoni has gathered his runs. In his early days he played more dot-balls, but the more significant difference is the break-up of his run-scoring deliveries: pre 2007, he struck boundaries off more than 11% of the deliveries he faced; the last year has seen a 35% decrease in that figure. Similarly, his ability to find the gaps and run hard has meant a much higher percentage of deliveries have gone for singles, twos and threes.
Break-up of balls faced by Dhoni in ODIs | Period | Dot ball % | 1s, 2s, 3s % | Boundary % |
| Till Dec 2006 | 50.33 | 38.24 | 11.43 |
| From Jan 2007 | 48.05 | 44.47 | 7.48 |
In
six games in the CB Series so far, Dhoni has scored 260 runs at an excellent average, but only 46 of those runs have come in boundaries (10 fours and a six), which converts to a measly 17.69%. Among all series in which he scored at least 100 runs, only once has he scored a smaller percentage of his runs in boundaries: in Rajkot against Sri Lanka in February 2007, he scored 48 with just one four, and followed that with an unbeaten 67 with four fours. Not surprisingly, his five series with the smallest boundary percentage have all come in 2007 or after.
His ability to absorb pressure and play according to team needs have made Dhoni one of the best finishers in ODIs today. He is also among the best in ensuring that deliveries aren't wasted: his dot-ball percentage in ODIs is 50.13%, which is next only to that of Mark Boucher, the South African wicketkeeper, who is the only player in the last four years (among those who've faced at least 2000 balls in ODIs during this period) to have a dot-ball percentage of less than 50.
Batsmen with lowest dot-ball % in ODIs since Jan 2004 (at least 2000 balls faced) | Batsman | Innings | Runs | Average | Runs per over | Dot-ball % | 1s, 2s, 3s % |
| Mark Boucher | 82 | 2140 | 34.51 | 5.48 | 48.78 | 43.82 |
| Mahendra Singh Dhoni | 92 | 3098 | 45.55 | 5.54 | 50.13 | 41.93 |
| Michael Hussey | 58 | 1940 | 55.42 | 5.32 | 50.80 | 41.47 |
| Tillakaratne Dilshan | 93 | 2097 | 30.37 | 4.82 | 51.26 | 43.30 |
| Andrew Symonds | 92 | 3224 | 45.42 | 5.70 | 51.31 | 41.14 |
| Michael Clarke | 102 | 3490 | 44.18 | 4.87 | 52.67 | 41.33 |
| Inzamam-ul-Haq | 68 | 2384 | 41.80 | 4.88 | 53.76 | 40.16 |
| Mohammad Yousuf | 67 | 3545 | 43.23 | 4.56 | 53.98 | 41.04 |
| Scott Styris | 67 | 2197 | 38.54 | 4.77 | 54.02 | 39.99 |
| Kevin Pietersen | 64 | 2515 | 48.36 | 5.24 | 54.12 | 37.71 |
S Rajesh is stats editor of Cricinfo.
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