It happened quietly. A whisper into the ether. Just like it did in 2014. And then in 2020. The end of an era. MS Dhoni's last act as captain was lifting the IPL trophy. His most lasting act, subverting expectation.
He's made it seem like it's been a straight line from being an Indian Railways employee to breakout cricket star to multiple World Cup winner to multiple IPL winner to finally the stuff of pure myth, who was spending his Thursday evening calmly playing volleyball with his feet.
About two hours before this training session, it became clear that he'd made a life-altering decision (if not his, then at least Ruturaj Gaikwad's). But here he was, whacking a ball to the other end of the outfield, that long hair from back in the day flowing in the wind.
Two-hundred and thirty-five games as CSK captain. That's just two matches less than Virat Kohli's entire IPL career. And even over all those matches, he always found a way to surprise. Going all the way back to that wild night in Dharamsala in 2010. Back then there was a glitch in the system and the emotion came pouring out. There has rarely been a more visceral celebration in the 16 years of this tournament than the guy who gets called Captain Cool losing it and pretty much punching himself in the face. Although, ten months ago, when he grabbed a grown man around his middle and hoisted him up high on a knee that was completely shot, he probably topped himself.
Ravindra Jadeja was the one that was holding Dhoni up from taking the crease at practice on Thursday. Clean hits down the ground and over cover and once again they brought zero applause. There was only a smattering of people at the ground - maybe about a hundred - and they were here for only one person. He tends to wear funny pads, start sentences with "Well, of course" and drop bombshells with no warning.
The time for him to bat finally came and once again he subverted expectations. Dhoni's practice sessions in the IPL end up as a sort of structural integrity test for cricket balls. He absolutely belts them. Here he started with a dokku (Chennai street lingo for block). It was a reminder that he can still be kept quiet by that in-between length on and around off stump. The person operating the sidearm quickly read the room and shifted his line closer to Dhoni's body and very soon those vintage shots were peppering the leg-side boundary. There was a glimpse of the helicopter. One that soared out of the ground. And another that was a warning to anyone planning to bowl wide yorkers. Make sure they're proper wide or you'll be in the path of a missile coming straight at you.
"It's annoying, isn't it?" CSK coach Stephen Fleming said with a smile as he spoke about Dhoni's power. "That it comes that easy. But no, I have been absolutely amazed with the way that he has prepared and played the pre-season. And I'm very hopeful that he's going to have a big contribution again to us in that role down the order.
"But it is one of the things that we really admire about MS, his durability. Last year, he functioned on one leg and had that cleaned up and the desire to rehab and come back again is very strong. And it's contagious and motivational for the players when they see the work that he does and then the skills that he still has. He's a sharp mind. He's hitting the ball beautifully in the nets and is still as determined as ever to make a contribution to the franchise. And that's all that I can ask and that his fellow team-mates do as well."
The switch in captaincy was Dhoni's idea and while he does have a long history of making calls based on gut instinct, the most famous of which happened at 114 for 3 on April 2, 2011, both he and the franchise would not have taken this one lightly. Especially because they last time they tried it, it backfired. The problem with succeeding Dhoni is that you aren't just succeeding a man, you're succeeding a feeling, a phenomenon. When Dhoni had faith in you, it meant a cult hero, a World-Cup-winning legend, one of the greatest to have ever played the game, had faith in you. That made you play differently.
So this transition, like most others of its kind, will be painful and CSK will have to brace for a tough little period. They will want to insulate their new captain; ensure that even though the outside world would judge him against an impossible standard, they themselves are behind him and his vision. They seem better prepared for it. Fleming's already cracking jokes.
"There were tears everywhere. Everyone was crying," he said, taking the opportunity to show off his dry sense of humour. "Yeah, no, it was typically low-key. Very low-key. And as expected, quickly led to a bit of a celebration of Ruturaj and the opportunity [he has]. So the players embraced it well. There's always a little bit of shock around it, but going back to two years ago, we're much more conditioned to this time. And the players handled it very well, just as the captain... ex-captain, handled it well in announcing it to the team."
That little slip of the tongue right there, where Fleming couldn't help but call Dhoni captain, and then corrected himself, it's going to keep happening. It's going to take some time for this to feel real. For Fleming, for CSK, and the rest of us.