Mahi and Yuvi : The Road ahead for the Finishers
IPL 2017 so far has proved to be nothing but a dream come true for many young cricketers in the domestic circuit. To start of with a few, the likes of Nitish Rana, Pandya brothers and Rishabh Pant have made stellar performances. Some of them match winning too. When I used to play the IPL Fantasy league in 2016, I would struggle to put in one uncapped player (Not represented India in any format so far) in my team to balance the squad, whereas the scenario right now, its upside down. I've become an underdog lover with more than 3 uncapped players on any given day. The other thing that this tournament does, on a bad note is to end a few senior players careers in the T20 and ODI formats.
Exactly for that matter, this tournament and the youngster fraternity has not been kind for two veteran finishers of the modern day game - Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh. Their present performances suggest they're a pale shadow of what once they were.
The Southpaw, who was instrumental in setting up the WT20 2007 and WC 2011 victories is another victim of poor form. Ever since his return from the life threatening Lung Cancer, his game and form has been dipping. Unlike Dhoni, Yuvraj has the backing of fans, with a very little haters compared to the right hander. He has been one of the hot picks in the IPL in the past with RCB picking him up for 14 Crores in IPL 2014 and again picked up SRH for 7 Crores but hasn't been able to deliver the team his worth of money. Of course teams have been greedy with costly buys, recent example being Tymal Mills by RCB who will be paid INR 242,918 for every ball he bowls, provided he plays all the 14 games and bowls all 4 overs for RCB this season. Though its unfair to compare Yuvraj with Mills, the subject in focus here is the money players get paid. Do they bring the money's worth to the table is the question. Yuvraj clearly hasn't lived up to his price for the past 3 years. Though he had been overlooked for the National side many a times, he was lucky enough to make comebacks 3 times but not able to capitalize on all of them. Coming back from cancer and playing the game is a miracle, but the board and fans won't take that as an excuse for long. He will soon be in trend with #DropYuvi just like it happened for Dhoni few days back. The ongoing IPL 2017 hasn't been too kind either for Yuvraj Singh except the first game when he scored a swashbuckling 50 of 20 deliveries. Ever since, his form has dived deep down south. Not even close to what he was a few years ago with his fielding skills, drop catches and misfields. For some reason, the fans who have been critical of Dhoni's form have kept mum regarding the game of Yuvraj Singh. Its just a matter of time before the leftie starts facing the heat, its better to strike red hot form and score tons of runs and look "if" he could make the cut for the Champions Trophy 2017.
Exactly for that matter, this tournament and the youngster fraternity has not been kind for two veteran finishers of the modern day game - Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh. Their present performances suggest they're a pale shadow of what once they were.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Dhoni has been in the trend for a long time now. Long enough to be tired of criticizing. No doubt, he will go down as one of the best finishers and an even better captain in the history of the game, his recent performances have not been up to the standards. Ever since the WC 2015, he has been on and off color, mostly ending up on the wrong side. Runs have dried up, Big helicopters are not coming anymore and more importantly he is not the commander now, for he has given up his captaincy.
After all these years of cricket, finally the age seems to have gotten to him. He is one of those personalities who has an equal number of fans and haters in a country where cricketers are seen in a god like status. Now that he is not the skipper anymore and having the freedom to come up the order, he should try and play his natural game, the long haired Dhoni with a wild swing of bat we all know. The Rising Pune Super Giants is the best chance he has got to hit back at redemption. Why so..? One common concern all Dhoni fans share (Including me), "There is no explosive WK Batsman after MS, so he must play". Folks, that excuse is no more. Sourav Ganguly openly stating his discontent about MS in the T20 format is just another nail in the coffin. With the likes of Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa waiting in the wings, the former captain cannot tend to be too ignorant of his batting for it will surely cost him his place in the team. If Dhoni isn't at his best in the upcoming Champions Trophy 2017 in England, then the most probable thing that could happen is the worst - shown the door.
After all these years of cricket, finally the age seems to have gotten to him. He is one of those personalities who has an equal number of fans and haters in a country where cricketers are seen in a god like status. Now that he is not the skipper anymore and having the freedom to come up the order, he should try and play his natural game, the long haired Dhoni with a wild swing of bat we all know. The Rising Pune Super Giants is the best chance he has got to hit back at redemption. Why so..? One common concern all Dhoni fans share (Including me), "There is no explosive WK Batsman after MS, so he must play". Folks, that excuse is no more. Sourav Ganguly openly stating his discontent about MS in the T20 format is just another nail in the coffin. With the likes of Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa waiting in the wings, the former captain cannot tend to be too ignorant of his batting for it will surely cost him his place in the team. If Dhoni isn't at his best in the upcoming Champions Trophy 2017 in England, then the most probable thing that could happen is the worst - shown the door.
Yuvraj Singh
The Southpaw, who was instrumental in setting up the WT20 2007 and WC 2011 victories is another victim of poor form. Ever since his return from the life threatening Lung Cancer, his game and form has been dipping. Unlike Dhoni, Yuvraj has the backing of fans, with a very little haters compared to the right hander. He has been one of the hot picks in the IPL in the past with RCB picking him up for 14 Crores in IPL 2014 and again picked up SRH for 7 Crores but hasn't been able to deliver the team his worth of money. Of course teams have been greedy with costly buys, recent example being Tymal Mills by RCB who will be paid INR 242,918 for every ball he bowls, provided he plays all the 14 games and bowls all 4 overs for RCB this season. Though its unfair to compare Yuvraj with Mills, the subject in focus here is the money players get paid. Do they bring the money's worth to the table is the question. Yuvraj clearly hasn't lived up to his price for the past 3 years. Though he had been overlooked for the National side many a times, he was lucky enough to make comebacks 3 times but not able to capitalize on all of them. Coming back from cancer and playing the game is a miracle, but the board and fans won't take that as an excuse for long. He will soon be in trend with #DropYuvi just like it happened for Dhoni few days back. The ongoing IPL 2017 hasn't been too kind either for Yuvraj Singh except the first game when he scored a swashbuckling 50 of 20 deliveries. Ever since, his form has dived deep down south. Not even close to what he was a few years ago with his fielding skills, drop catches and misfields. For some reason, the fans who have been critical of Dhoni's form have kept mum regarding the game of Yuvraj Singh. Its just a matter of time before the leftie starts facing the heat, its better to strike red hot form and score tons of runs and look "if" he could make the cut for the Champions Trophy 2017.
The Road Ahead
As I had mentioned earlier, there are way too many youngsters to ignore the poor performances. Competition is cut throat just like getting into an IIT or an IIM for that matter. With the likes of Raina and Harbhajan already shown the door by stripping their central contracts, the end is not so far for the "Once upon a time finishers".
Performances from Rana, the Pandyas, Pant, Vohra and even our little Parthiv Patel have been scintillating. With one or two spots remaining vacant in the middle order and the huge bench resources that the team has, its high time the two friends get their acts right and make it big in the Champions Trophy 2017, not to become their own superstar self, but to make sure they remain in the playing XI. All the respective fans could do is "Hope" their favorite players get back to form as soon as possible.
Performances from Rana, the Pandyas, Pant, Vohra and even our little Parthiv Patel have been scintillating. With one or two spots remaining vacant in the middle order and the huge bench resources that the team has, its high time the two friends get their acts right and make it big in the Champions Trophy 2017, not to become their own superstar self, but to make sure they remain in the playing XI. All the respective fans could do is "Hope" their favorite players get back to form as soon as possible.
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