India, April 6 -- Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been around long enough to know when the writing is on the wall. For much of his time with the India national team and the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), his game sense was his greatest strength - he somehow always knew who to back and when, how to time the chase, even when to come up the order. No one else did it like him. And the results showed it.

But the current IPL season is showing us a different picture of the man. He looks like a player who has reached his limit but refuses to acknowledge it. If it was an individual sport, one could not really say much, but in a team sport such as cricket, he seems to be dragging his team down along with him.

Sure, five-time champions CSK have always found ...