Dhoni, finisher or builder: The nation wants to know

pull out big shots with regularity and more importantly, how safe he wants to play.

The list where Dhoni failed to do the job in recent times is reasonably long — in the Champions Trophy final against Pakistan, he made just 4 off 16 balls when the need was to stay on after early loss of wickets.

Before that, in the ODI series against England, he threw his wicket away twice. Once he left the team struggling at 173/5 with 150 runs to get off 18.2 overs. He made 25 off 36 and was caught playing away from his body. In another game, he lobbed a simple catch to leave India at 63/4 while chasing 350. India eventually won that game.

In the ODIs against New Zealand, where he captained, Dhoni made 192 runs in five ODIs with a fifty (80). In the two matches India lost, Dhoni got out at crucial stages while chasing modest targets.

Though, there were two instances in the past season where he played the role of an anchor and stabilised the innings after early jitters. But these have been few and far between.

It seems Dhoni isn’t sure about how to approach the game at the end of his career — should he consolidate or should he go slam bang way, like he used to.

While playing the consolidating role, Dhoni’s technique is getting questioned and every time he is dismissed in an awkward manner, it is coming into focus.

However, skipper Virat Kohli isn’t reading too much into it.

“You can’t judge a guy’s batting form at the nets because you don’t know what kind of a wicket you are going to get. He is striking the ball beautifully. You don’t need to tell him, how to play in a situation.”

Even as the captain thinks he is doing fine, Dhoni’s approach at the nets, however, does betray a sense of trying hard to fit himself in.

Maybe, the tour of Sri Lanka may give us a clearer picture.