Dhoni's Midas touch on the wane? London: Mahendra Singh Dhoni's captaincy has hitherto been a flight into altitudes. No 1 ranking, World Cup, overseas wins' he has had more highs than lows under his belt.
More appropriately, he never had a single low since the time he took over as skipper. He had not lost any of the 12 series he led India in before coming to England. The foot was never off the pedal.It, perhaps, was never on the ground either.
Coming under-prepared to England has not only exposed the technical inadequacies of his team but also abilities of his wards to counter the sustained hostilities from the home team.
Now, Dhoni comes to a position where his leadership could be under scanner. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is now talking of an inquest into the series.
The skipper put up a brave front stating that he is not worried at the prospect of facing a review but his captaincy has reached that point where he could ill-afford a defeat.
He would have the dubious distinction of presiding over a 0-4 defeat. India have not had to experience such humiliation in the recent times ' the last 0-4 loss was in an away series against Australia in 1967-68. The last whitewash was 11 years ago in 1999-2000, also in an away series against Australia.
'I'm not bothered about facing a review,' Dhoni said rather bravely. 'We have other things to do. What's important is what we did on the field. We gave it our best shot and we will see what happens later.'
It is difficult to predict what happens later but Dhoni would surely be under pressure to win the fourth Test starting at The Oval on Thursday. He may have to do a lot of explaining if it were to be 0-4. Dhoni's performance too has been under scanner.
He may have silenced a few critics with his batting in the third Test at Edgbaston but his captaincy has been far from convincing. His wicketkeeping has been shoddy and field-placements unimaginative. At many junctures during the series, he looked clueless to stem the flow of runs.
There were also questionable selection choices ' fielding Virender Sehwag in the third Test, persisting with Suresh Raina to state a couple ' by the skipper. The Midas touch that was associated with the Captain Cool was is conspicuously missing.
The skipper tried to philosophise the whole situation. 'At the end of the day, it is a sport. You will go through tough times and I feel challenges which make life interesting,' he quipped.
The captain would do well to come down from the altitudes to hear the alarm bells over the quality of his captaincy if not about its immediate future. London: Mahendra Singh Dhoni's captaincy has hitherto been a flight into altitudes. No 1 ranking, World Cup, overseas wins' he has had more highs than lows under his belt.
More appropriately, he never had a single low since the time he took over as skipper. He had not lost any of the 12 series he led India in before coming to England. The foot was never off the pedal.It, perhaps, was never on the ground either.
Coming under-prepared to England has not only exposed the technical inadequacies of his team but also abilities of his wards to counter the sustained hostilities from the home team.
Now, Dhoni comes to a position where his leadership could be under scanner. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is now talking of an inquest into the series.
The skipper put up a brave front stating that he is not worried at the prospect of facing a review but his captaincy has reached that point where he could ill-afford a defeat.
He would have the dubious distinction of presiding over a 0-4 defeat. India have not had to experience such humiliation in the recent times ' the last 0-4 loss was in an away series against Australia in 1967-68. The last whitewash was 11 years ago in 1999-2000, also in an away series against Australia.
'I'm not bothered about facing a review,' Dhoni said rather bravely. 'We have other things to do. What's important is what we did on the field. We gave it our best shot and we will see what happens later.'
It is difficult to predict what happens later but Dhoni would surely be under pressure to win the fourth Test starting at The Oval on Thursday. He may have to do a lot of explaining if it were to be 0-4. Dhoni's performance too has been under scanner.
He may have silenced a few critics with his batting in the third Test at Edgbaston but his captaincy has been far from convincing. His wicketkeeping has been shoddy and field-placements unimaginative. At many junctures during the series, he looked clueless to stem the flow of runs.
There were also questionable selection choices ' fielding Virender Sehwag in the third Test, persisting with Suresh Raina to state a couple ' by the skipper. The Midas touch that was associated with the Captain Cool was is conspicuously missing.
The skipper tried to philosophise the whole situation. 'At the end of the day, it is a sport. You will go through tough times and I feel challenges which make life interesting,' he quipped.
The captain would do well to come down from the altitudes to hear the alarm bells over the quality of his captaincy if not about its immediate future.
News Posted: 18 August, 2011
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