M.S. Dhoni was nervous.
He was watching a familiar and, for him, once-his-bread-and-butter phase unfold in the IPL 2023 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The end overs of a run chase that have been so central to his life, where he has played and won so many matches, including the biggest of his life — the 2011 ODI World Cup final against Sri Lanka — and served as the ultimate cricket talisman and guru for his teammates.
But he had never been spotted like this — the version of himself that has for the past two decades mostly been hidden from the public eye — the emotionally-laden leader of sorts. It is a quality that does not always come easily to him, and no one would begrudge one of the most scrutinised cricketers in the world if he wanted to seal off parts of himself.
