Ms Dhoni: One of the greatest 

THE FINISHER:

Whenever we hear the word finisher the two names that strike us are MS Dhoni and Michael Bevan. Both these players played in two different eras. Bevan averages 86.25 in the successful run chases in ODI's for Australia whereas Dhoni averages 102.88 in successful run chases in ODI's for India. Dhoni has a career strike of 88.13 whereas Bevan had a strike rate of 74.16. Dhoni has the highest number of not-outs in successful chases (44 and counting). 19 times Dhoni has finished an innings off with four or six in ODI's, 12 of them were sixes and 7 were fours.

India was involved in 14 tournament finals since 2004 (tournament involving 3 or more teams) in which India batted second 8 times and managed to win 3 times, in those 3 successful chases Dhoni has never been dismissed and has scored 151 runs with the highest score of 91* which came in the world cup finals against Sri Lanka in 2011. Dhoni has been involved in 8 successful run chases in the world cup for India, in which he has batted in 6 innings and was dismissed only twice and averages 140.6

Dhoni in last 10 overs( overs after 40) in his ODI career averages 40.5 and strikes at 128.7, he has scored over 3500 runs in the last ten overs in ODI's. Dhoni in successful chases in t20's ( including IPL, champions league) has an average of 52.34 which is 13 more than his career average( career average 39.3) and he strikes at 137 in successful chases. Dhoni is the only batsman to score more than 10,000 runs in ODI's at an average more than 50. He has scored his majority of runs while batting at number 5 or below( 7,725 runs).

What makes Dhoni the best finisher?

Dhoni's ability to read the situation, his ability to read the resources left for the opposition and act accordingly and his ability to remain calm and cool in pressure situations makes him the best finisher in the world. Dhoni's ability to take a match down to the last over and he has the ability to make it into a one on one battle between himself and the bowler and mostly winning those battles to take his side home makes him the best finisher.

DHONI'S BAD PATCH:

Since the 2015 world cup Dhoni has been criticised for starting slowly in the early part of his innings especially in chases. Dhoni loves to take it deep and smash at the end to take his team home which has backfired in recent times. The latest match was against West Indies in Antigua, India was chasing a modest target of 190 and fell short by 12 runs. Dhoni scored the second slowest half-century by an Indian in ODI's(108 balls). Dhoni played 70 balls in 114 balls that he played, he eventually fell to Kesrick Williams in the 49th over. Since 2014 in run chases in ODI's his average dipped to 38.5 and his strike rate too dropped down to 78, his dot ball percentage increased from 50.8 % to 51.2%, runs in 1's,2's,3's per 100 balls dipped from 48.56 to 47.54, his runs boundaries per 100 balls also dipped from 34.03 to 30.47.

Dhoni has struggled against spin in recent times. Dhoni loves to come down the track to spinners but spinners have evolved and have targeted his body, high paced deliveries into his body do not let Dhoni free his arms and this made Dhoni stuck in the middle. Since 2015 Dhoni has not scored more than 4 runs per over against spinners in ODI's. Since 2015 there has been an increase in the number of spinners ( especially leg-spinners) so Dhoni eventually has to face a lot of spinners at the start of his innings so this made him start slow in recent times. Dhoni was dismissed 6 times and in which he was dismissed four times by leg-spinners in the recently concluded IPL.

Dhoni in the last 12 months in ODI's has the lowest strike rate as a wicketkeeper-batsman when compared with other wicketkeeper-batsmen like Jos Butler, Quinton de Kock, Brendon Taylor, Dhoni strikes at 79.36. Since 2015 Dhoni has the lowest strike rate at number 6 and he has been able to stay in the crease longer when compared to the other number 6 batsmen who have scored at least 300 runs at number 6 in ODI's since May 2015.

DHONI 3.0:

For the past 12 months Is the Finisher finished? was the question that was put forward at Dhoni by many people either in social media or in press conferences. The most awaited answer from Dhoni came in the IPL 2018 in which Dhoni smashed 455 runs at an average of 75.83 and had a strike rate of 150.66. In IPL 2018 Dhoni muscled 30 sixes and he did what is he does the best finishing a match off with a six, twice Dhoni finished a match off with a six in the IPL 2018

What changed things for Dhoni in the IPL 2018?

Out of the 15 innings that Dhoni in the IPL 2018 on fourteen occasions he batted at number four and five. In those fourteen occasions, he scored 439 runs at an average of 73.16 and had a strike rate of 148.8. Promoting himself up the order has changed things for Dhoni in the recently concluded IPL.

Author's Envision:

In ODI's since May 2015 Dhoni averaged highest while batting at number four and number five, he averages 46.11 and 46.06 at number 4 and number 5 respectively. He has played 17 innings at number five since May 2015 and has a strike rate of 88.13 which is equal to his career strike rate. With the World Cup, less than a year away and India struggling to solve it's middle order woes in ODI's, promoting Dhoni to number 4 or 5 will fix their middle order woes. Dhoni likes to get the scorecard moving by nudging the singles and twos, he is a busy player at the crease, he runs hard between the wickets and keeps the scorecard ticking. Number 5 will be ideal for him because since May 2015 in the 17 innings whenever he had batted at number 5 the average over at which he came to the crease was around 26 this gives him the much important time to settle down and unleash himself in the last 10 overs. Dhoni if promoted to number four or five will provide some much important solidity that India is looking for if their top three fails.

MS Dhoni = Ricky Pointing+ Michael Bevan+ Adam Gilchrist, this indicates that Dhoni has the captaincy skills like Ricky Pointer, the finishing ability like Bevan and wicket keeping skills like Gilchrist. So Let's hope that the best finisher in the planet will have a great finish to his career.