MS Dhoni has become a question mark these days. His well-appreciated captaincy is on the wane now. At 34, it seems that he has lost his charm. Under his leadership, India has not won a series since the world cup. His on-field presence, constant conversation with bowlers were not visible in this ongoing ODI series against Australia. His team scored 1215 runs in last four matches. But, none of the matches turned around India’s fortune. His decision, team selection and his batting are feeding his critics ample ‘masala’ to raise their voice for his removal from the captaincy.
He is now a legacy more than a captain with a sharp cricket brain. With Australia fancying a 5-0 series victory MS Dhoni’s captaincy is no more acceptable. In this Victoria Beer ODI series Indian bowlers were looking for his inputs from behind the wicket, but not for a single time he was seen to come to help them. When he was not coming vice-captain of ODI team and Test captain Virat Kohli was seen consulting with bowlers.
It is true that when your bowlers can’t do much then a captain most certainly won’t. But, in this series Australian bowlers are less experienced than Indian bowlers and equally battered by Indian batsmen as Australian batsmen hammered India’s bowlers.
But, what made the difference between two teams is confidence and inspiration. Dhoni after the loss in third ODI blamed “lack of concentration” of players. When he was attending the press conference there was no regret in his eyes. He described the reasons to lose the match. As a captain, he has to inspire his team and lead them to a victory. But, India in each match slumped to aggressive and the fighting spirit of Australian players. He could take a cue from New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum who lead New Zealand with an aggressive brand of cricket and fought till the end even though they lost the test series 2-0.
MS Dhoni could blame his players, and even himself, But he must find the road to victory as a captain. This Indian team do not lack talent. But Dhoni must leave his prejudices. He kept using Ravichandran Ashwin in first two ODIs on bouncy pitches where spinners get hardly any assistance and termed Rishi Dhawan, who was selected as a seaming allrounder, a batsman. When a player is going to make debut this reckless statement from the captain erodes his confidence level or lack of.
And when he gave Himachal Pradesh allrounder a chance after a loss in the third match, he said, “I dropped Ashwin as if we lose the match then people will blame me for not giving new faces a chance.” This statement proved that Dhoni has no confidence in his debutant players. He gave a chance for the sake of it.