“When you’re spending everyday on your own
And here it goes,
I’m just a kid,
And life is a nightmare”
These are lyrics of a song by Simple Plan. But what importance do they hold in a cricketer’s life? Prima facie, not much. Unless some of them might like the song more than others, and a few might treat it as their favourite.
But Virat Kohli used the song in one of his posts to wish MS Dhoni on his birthday. Does it mean something? Probably. Was he trying to convey a message through this song that he is on his own in the new Indian setup after Dhoni’s retirement? Possibly.
Only Kohli can tell us why he chose this song out of a million options. But what we can witness is that his form has been affected in recent times, which coincidentally (or not) has been simultaneous with Dhoni’s retirement. And Kohli’s recent social media posts have only added more fuel to the fire.
Being this man’s trusted deputy was the most enjoyable and exciting period in my career. Our partnerships would always be special to me forever. 7+18 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/PafGRkMH0Y
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) August 25, 2022
The universe and space have been full of unknown objects, with new developments coming day in and day out. But one of the resolved mysteries is that of a binary star system that seems like a single object to the naked eye when staring at the night sky but is actually a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to each other and orbit around one another.
Kohli and Dhoni’s on-field relationship over the years had been similar – if Dhoni gave imputed support to Kohli throughout the years for him to give his best, it was Kohli’s batting more often than not that led the team to victory and improved Dhoni’s captaincy records.
Winning-shot-specialist Dhoni would dodge a short-pitched delivery and refrain from scoring the winning runs to let Kohli complete his half-century in a T20 World Cup semi-final. Kohli, in consideration, would trust him blindly while batting together and run on Dhoni’s call, with his eyes closed.
Years later when the captaincy baton was passed over to Kohli, they transitioned so smoothly that despite Kohli being the skipper, he would field at the boundary line towards the end of the innings and let Dhoni command the field settings.
The partnership and the chemistry between the two was a winning strategy for the team and heart-warming stuff for the fans, just like the binary stars are a delight to the eyes through the telescope.
Data: ESPN Cricinfo
Dhoni announced his retirement in an uncanny MS Dhoni style in August of 2020. But his last international match had come more than a year back in July 2019. The emotional World Cup semi-final against New Zealand. Kohli has scored only two centuries in ODIs after the World Cup, both against West Indies in the August of 2019.
Kohli’s century in ODIs is awaited since then, in what has felt like an eternity. So is this just a coincidence or has Kohli’s form has really been tepid in the absence of Dhoni?
Out of Kohli’s 262 ODI appearances, Dhoni has featured in 195. Kohli’s overall ODI average is 57.68. It rises to 59.82 in Dhoni’s presence. But his average drastically reduces to 51.93 in Dhoni’s absence. To add to the numbers, he scored a century every 5.74th match in Dhoni’s presence, but that increased to 7.44 in his absence. However, his overall ratio of 50+ scores improves from every 2.57 ODIs to 2.16.
A similar statistic is also perceptible in T20Is, but with a scarce difference between the two averages. In 39 out of 99 games when Kohli has played without Dhoni, his average drops down to 48.29 from 51.16 in 60 matches wherein Dhoni was present.
A lightyear-like difference is also seen in Kohli’s averages on either side of Dhoni’s last ODI. He averages 59.71 (from 235 games) till July 2019 and 42.36 (in 27 games) after July 2019. But considering the contrast between such a short time and less number of games and an elongated time period, the comparison doesn’t seem to be assertive.
Data: ESPN Cricinfo
If we believe that Dhoni’s absence has indeed affected Kohli’s performance, the numbers do suggest something. But the numbers never show a complete picture. It would be like to accept that the universe is only as distant as our telescopes can witness and that we can count the number of stars.
But it can be said that Kohli’s golden run in coloured clothing was with Dhoni by his side. However, with still a few years left in Kohli’s career, he can definitely change those statistics.
Till then the impact of Dhoni’s presence on Kohli — though he said that being his deputy was the best part of his career — will be a black hole-like mystery.
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