Why Dhoni's weakness against fuller balls is no longer a problem

If you see the full ball outside off being used by fast bowlers to exploit a batsman's inability to deal with it, it's fair to assume that batsman's Test career will be short-lived.

Whenever MS Dhoni walks out to bat in a Test match, especially outside the subcontinent, that's the plan most teams employ: pitch it full, keep it outside off, and lure him into playing an expansive drive. This modus operandi yielded results until this summer, when India toured England.

Dhoni got out a couple of times caught in the slip cordon in England, but it was no longer the overriding theme of his stay in the middle. England's bowlers, as expected, tried bowling full outside off at first but had to resort to other tactics when they realised Dhoni was no longer taking the bait. He moved around a lot to get way outside off, charged at the bowler often, and, most importantly, left a lot of balls alone.

In a post-match press conference Dhoni made a pertinent point about succeeding in England: if you know where your off stump is, you can always build your game around it. Even with his limitations Dhoni was undoubtedly one of India's best batsmen against the moving ball on that tour of England, and that was courtesy his knowledge of where his off stump was.

All through his career, Dhoni has been adept at playing most shots in the book; in fact, a few more than the ones mentioned in the book. But the cover drive has failed to feature in this list. The cover region isn't an area he favours for scoring against fast bowlers, even in the subcontinent and in his favoured shorter formats.

Dhoni often plays a walking drive, though the fundamentals of batting dictate that unless you have a strong base at the time of impact, you are not likely to get the desired results in terms of power and control. Some experts have pointed out that because his bottom hand takes over, it doesn't allow him to get close enough to the ball.

Yes, he's a predominantly bottom-handed player and that's why he drags the cover drives through extra cover and mid-off. But the interpretation that the bottom hand doesn't allow his front foot to reach to the pitch of the ball is far from the truth.

Logically, the wrists and hands are the smallest muscle group involved in batting, and it's not convincing to suggest that the smallest muscle group doesn't allow the bigger limbs to move. On the contrary, it's the lack of movement of the bigger limbs that results in the smaller muscles reacting in an undesired manner.

Due to Dhoni's not-long-enough front-foot stride, his bottom hand takes over the shot even before impact. The short front-foot stride results in the weight being transferred on to the front foot a bit too early. Only the leg that's not carrying the weight of the body can move backwards or forward. If the front foot is already loaded, it will not move far.

While Dhoni's short front-foot stride makes him susceptible to the fuller delivery, it allows him to be a strong back-foot player - a key reason for his success in England. Once he decided to not fall into the trap of playing cover drives, the bowlers had to shorten their lengths and test him with bouncers, thus playing to his strengths. His method of dealing with the short-pitched stuff might not qualify as elegant but it is highly effective.

A lot of people mistake Dhoni's batting to be "natural flair". But the Test tour to England highlighted the fact that there was more than that to his game. Driving a moving ball is tough, but so is resisting the temptation to do so. Obviously, it's a little easier to survive with Dhoni's method when you bat at No. 6 or No. 7 as the team's keeper. This sort of approach might not work for an opener.

If Dhoni continues to show the same discipline and courage in his batting in Australia that he did in England, the wait for a Test century outside the subcontinent might end by January.