Off the field, amid the IPL season 2017, thestatesman.com conducted a poll on social media networking site Facebook, asking our readers – who's a better captain for Rising Pune Supergiant – MS Dhoni or Steve Smith, and the result was surprising, but adorable.
India’s iconic cricketer MS Dhoni, who made us dare to dream and achieve those dreams in flying colours. Under his captaincy, Team India won ICC World Twenty20 in 2007, the Asia Cup in 2010, the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011 and the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013.
While leading the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League, Dhoni propelled his team to the title twice in 2010 and 2011. Adding to the joy, he led the CSK franchise to win Champions League T20 two times in 2010 and 2014.
Dhoni is regarded as one of the most prolific finishers in the history of cricket and the most dynamic cricketer behind the stumps.
However, the 35-year-old batsman is currently facing a tough time. Dhoni scored his last century in international cricket in January after a leap of three years and three months.
Also, he recently quit the captaincy to let Virat Kohli lead the men-in-blue. This move attracted a lot of criticism and heartbreaks as well because the Indian fans still wanted the match-winner captain leading the Indian cricket team.
Following the suspension of CSK from IPL, Dhoni’s stint with his new franchise Rising Pune Supergiant wasn’t fruitful. Under his captaincy, RPS finished second last in the final rankings of the IPL 2016.
Observing that, Australia’s Steve Smith was given the captaincy in the undergoing 2017 season of the IPL. However, the move couldn’t help them much as they have suffered two consecutive defeats so far in the three matches.
In the most-recent, RPS owner Sanjiv Goenka's brother Harsh and Dhoni’s wife Sakshi made the headlines with starting a never-ending debate – Is Dhoni a shadow of his past or still the undisputed king of cricket?
“Smith proves who's the king of the jungle. Overshadows Dhoni totally. Captains innings. Great move to appoint him as captain,” Harsh Goenka said on his Twitter handle after RPS’ victory against Mumbai Indians on April 6.
Taking a dig at Harsh, Sakshi posted a picture on his Instagram account posing with Dhoni’s CSK helmet citing “#throwback!!”.
Subsequently, Sakshi posted another picture with a quote: “When a bird is alive, it eats ants. When the bird is dead, ants eat the bird. Time and circumstances can change at any time. Don't devalue or hurt anyone in life. You may be powerful today, but remember, time is more powerful than you. One tree makes a million match sticks but only one match is needed to burn a million trees. So be good and do good.”
In the given situation, according to the result, over 580 users voted in favour of Dhoni, while Smith managed to bag just 174-plus votes.
The result tells us a fact that no matter Dhoni smashes the aggressive knocks that he used to hit or not, he will remain one of the biggest charms of Indian cricket.