MS Dhoni promises bigger and better things higher up the order

For the briefest of seconds, it seemed like a time lapse, or highlights footage of the mid-noughties. Mahendra Singh Dhoni had just bludgeoned Tim Southee through midwicket, a stroke stamped with muscular brutality. Dhoni didn’t care as much to follow the path of the ball or stand frozen watching it rebound off the boundary ropes.
There was nothing unusual or incredulous about the shot — a cross-batted swivel, a feature of most Dhoni knocks. But it was the timing of it, albeit not in the shot-making sense, which was surprising. It was just the sixth ball he was facing. India had just lost Rohit Sharma. As if promoting himself wasn’t a surprise in itself, watching Dhoni charging down and flat-batting a medium-pacer was an atavism.