MS Dhoni is the highest impact ODI player India has produced (minimum 60 matches). Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar follow him from a distance, where Ravindra Jadeja and Irfan Pathan also roughly dwell. It should not be surprising that the best all-rounders are the highest impact players in ODI cricket, because their dual skills help them contribute more consistently in matches. Dhoni contributes in three ways – as wicketkeeper, captain and significant middle-order batsman.

Purely as a batsman, Dhoni is India’s third-highest impact player, after Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. The latter two batted in the top four most of the time in ODI cricket; Dhoni batted mostly at no. 6 or 7, from where he had far less opportunity to have a say consistently. The next highest impact batsman in this position is the 19th highest impact Indian batsman — Ajay Jadeja. Dhoni is higher impact as an ODI batsmen than the likes of Azharuddin, Ganguly, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Dravid, Sehwag, Vengsarkar and Gavaskar, a few of whom also bowled a bit, but were mostly specialist batsmen. Interestingly, seven batsmen absorbed more pressure (of falling wickets) than Dhoni across eras — Kohli, Dravid, Azharuddin, Amarnath, Yuvraj, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammad Kaif. And seven batsmen have been higher impact chasers than him — Kohli, Gambhir, Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Gavaskar, Navjot Sidhu and Azharuddin. Dhoni’s batting failure rate of 39 per cent makes him India’s most consistent batsman.

All of this is simply remarkable for someone who comes in to bat at the position he does — no. 6 and 7, even though some of his most famous innings have come higher up the order. Here’s one.

Vs Pakistan, 2005. In just the fifth ODI of his career, Dhoni came out to bat at No. 3 with the score at 26 for 1, with Tendulkar gone. First with Sehwag (74 off 40), then with Dravid (52 off 59), he took the Pakistan bowling apart with shots primarily in the V. He was in the sort of zone where he did not even feel the need to lie down, as every other player did when a swarm of bees invaded the ground. It was tiredness that ended his innings at 148 (with India at 281 for 4), 15 fours and 4 sixes adorning it. India won that match, one of the only two it would win in a series where Pakistan triumphed 4-2.

Dhoni also has 8 series/ tournament-defining performances (SDs) in his career, in 275 ODIs. Only Tendulkar (12) and Yuvraj Singh (9) have more than him, in 463 and 293 ODIs respectively. As a wicketkeeper, Dhoni is India’s highest impact, with Mongia and More after him. And finally, Dhoni is the highest impact Indian captain by a distance, followed by Azharuddin, Ganguly and Kapil Dev. Let us talk about his overall consistency in an even broader context.

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Rohit Sharma 

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