Acknowledging Your Time to go

Indian cricketers have excelled in refusing to believe that their time is up. The Indian Premier League (IPL), which is at the core of all the ills that plague Indian cricket, lulls the stars past their prime into believing they are just a hit away from their return to form. After all, the T20 format gives players the freedom to fail. But then for how long?

It is painful to see the likes of Rohit Sharma, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, and even Ravindra Jadeja struggling to find form. That they don't acknowledge their time is up, is hurting their fans as well as their hard-earned reputations. The icing on the 'cake' was Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) decision to go back to Dhoni when regular captain Ruturaj Gaikwad got injured. The immediate result has been disastrous, if we go by the whacking they received from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at their homeground - Chepauk, on 11th of April 2025. CSK seems to have swallowed the poison pill, hoping it to be an antidote to their legacy and nostalgia laced campaign so far in the ongoing IPL season.

Rohit Sharma has been failing across formats since the last domestic season. He had to drop himself from the Test squad but thanks to an obliging media, he was able to paint it as supreme sacrifice in the Indian cricket team's best interests. If he were to look holistically, he had an excellent opportunity to hang up his bat after lifting the Champions Trophy. But he chose to, though not asked specifically by the media, announce he wasn't retiring, at the press conference that followed the triumph. Except for a century against England in an ODI earlier this year and a 76 in the Champions Trophy final, he has nothing to show for of late; his other returns have hardly made a murmur.

Both Ashwin and Jadeja have been pale shadows of their selves in the ongoing IPL and they need to go for good. Having quit international and first-class cricket, whatever may have been the inglorious circumstances, Ashwin is unnecessarily hurting his own standing in the game. Jadeja too retired from T20 internationals after India won the T20 World Cup 2024. He too should focus on Tests and One Day Internationals (ODIs). But like Dhoni and Rohit the lure of the lucre and one last shot at the limelight seems to have consumed Ashwin and Jadeja. In a star-obsessed system, the-powers-that-be have no guts to show them the mirror. This includes both the franchisees of the IPL as well as the selectors of the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI). When Rohit, Kohli and Jadeja retired from T20 internationals last year, it was largely engineered behind-the-scenes by the BCCI Secretary Jay Shah. Similar interventions are required immediately.

The CSK team management has to look beyond Dhoni. They cannot keep going back to him whenever there is a captaincy crisis (remember Jadeja quitting midway through an earlier IPL season). Dhoni no longer plays domestic cricket. For him to come back for 7-8 weeks for the IPL once a year is difficult. But neither CSK nor Dhoni have given any hint that they are thinking beyond the latter. Dhoni is CSK, CSK is Dhoni. That legacy-cum-nostalgia baggage had already been heavy on their backs. Dhoni's return as captain seems to have further accentuated the crisis within the team. But then cricket is a funny game. CSK could still bounce back and all the above may be proved meaningless. This is exactly what CSK and the BCCI (including the experts on the broadcast panel) seems to be banking on. 

As Moeen Ali has pointed out in an interview, players need to prioritize the format they are suited to. They cannot be playing across formats and hoping success in one will lead to success in another. The Indian cricket team has lost two World Test Championship (WTC) finals in colder conditions in England in June soon after hot and humid weather back home in April and May (the IPL season), both in 2021 and 2023. Till they lost the recent home series to New Zealand and an away series in Australia, India were on course to another spot in the WTC finals slated for June 2025. But then Rohit Sharma believes he can rediscover his lost touch through T20 matches ahead of a grueling Test tour to England in June-August this year. The BCCI selectors led by Ajit Agarkar or even a tough no-nonsense coach cannot drop him speaks of the star power. After all, the Mumbai Indians franchise retained him for Rs 13 crores! 

For someone who doesn't follow cricket, the above correlations will appear nonsensical, which it is.