The Surfer

The helicopter shot is quintessential Dhoni, a fusion of timing and wrists and brute power generated from massively strong forearms. It’s a beautiful blend of rustic intelligence and studious analysis, a shot that defines the character of its practitioner. It’s a stroke Dhoni used to employ with no little success in the early stages of his career, but with growing time and greater responsibilities, he tended to rely on it increasingly sparsely.

It came to a point where Dhoni could no longer summon his patented stroke when he desired. He tried it – the big backlift, the bat coming in a scything arc to meet the fullish delivery, the snap of the wrists at the last minute and the strong forearms propelling the ball aerially – but only towards, not beyond, the long-on boundary.

All Dhoni got was less than 10 days [after the CLT20] before walking out for the toss again ... when he strode out at Hyderabad, the greyish stubble was gone. His hair seemed black again, most of it. The spring in the step wasn’t entirely back yet, but after the 126-run thrashing, none so much as mentioned queries about his [lost] Midas touch again.

In Dhoni’s renewed vigour is hope for the new (technically) season ... Dig a little deeper and there is an inherent case for giving players a little time off, allowing them to think about the merits and demerits of their own game, away from the spotlight. Mental preparation is as significant as net practice.

Also, coming from a political background could, ironically, prove a blessing in disguise for Ashraf rather than a dilemma given the intriguing politics of the PCB. The much cursed ad hoc system on which the PCB had been functioning since July 17, 1999 is one issue that all subsequent chairmen since the respectable Khalid Mahmood’s tenure have failed to resolve.

Shelving of the proposed World Test Championship: Finding itself in the unfamiliar position of having come up with an idea that a lot of cricket fans actually quite fancied – the 2013 tournament in England between the top four Test sides – the ICC panicked and have now decided to push the five-day championship back to 2017 at the earliest ...

"I played club cricket with my dad and I was never big enough to bowl fast so I just thought I'd try to spin it. I suppose I could have bowled finger spin, but it was just watching Shane Warne on television, and trying to spin it like him. I grew through the ranks at Durham, joined the academy and it's gone from there."

Now that injury management in Indian cricket has gone completely pear shaped, Zaheer Khan's statement should make the decision makers work on a solution. When Frank Tyson saw all under-19 fast bowlers of Mumbai for the first time at the outset of his coaching in a bowling scheme in 1990, he ended up commenting, “tiny shoulders and thin legs don't make fast bowlers”.

He has been in the selectors' thoughts and minds for a while. This is partly because there remains a quaint desperation to find an English leg-spin bowler, partly because he has developed at every stage of his short career. In the past year or so, when the subject of spin bowlers has cropped up, it has been the norm to cast about for a No 2 to Graeme Swann.

Even though, this tournament is a step ahead of the Deodhar Trophy (Inter-Zone limited-over tournament), it still is a far cry from what it used to be or should be. It's more like class X students mixed together and then randomly put into three teams to play against each other. It would only mean playing against the player from your own section (who otherwise would always play with you), while still playing school-level cricket. If one needs to improve or test the standard of upcoming players, it is imperative to play them against better quality opposition.

The eminent cricket writer Neville Cardus called Merchant "India's good European." The confrontation between the two mighty run-getters, Bradman and Merchant, was anticipated with excitement during India's pioneering tour of Australia in 1947-48. Merchant was appointed captain, but a groin injury forced him out. Bradman summed up his disappointment by saying, "We were denied the sight of Vijay Merchant, who must surely have claims to be the greatest of all Indian players."

Our domestic one-day cricket is still played over 40 overs rather than the 50 used in ODIs. I may have mentioned this before. It is not unconnected to the fact that, while England might be the No 1 Test team and World Twenty20 champions, they have never won a World Cup.