When Team India loses half of its batsmen in a
particular test match it is always all over. The Indian tail never manages to
wag—meaning the tail-enders invariably fail to take the score on leading to a
batting collapse and more often than not surrendering the match from a possible
winning position. And when Team India manages to grab half of the opposition
batsmen in a particular test match it only gives the charge back to the
opposition thus more often than not surrendering the match. When these two
lethal syndromes combine there is always a largely one-sided verdict against
India. These ‘tail’-oriented maladies are responsible for most of the away
defeats and six consecutive Test Series losses abroad suffered by India since
2011 including two white washes at the hands of England and Australia. This is responsible
for the most successful ever Indian cricket captain to finally step down from
Test cricket. A captain who gave India No.1 position in ICC’s Test rankings in
2009 for the first time ever and India continued there for 18 months.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni announced his retirement from
Test cricket in Melbourne on 30th December, 2014 after saving the
third Test against Australia and conceding the Series—a decision that was
expected for a long while, but not at all expected the way it had happened. Most
of the away defeats under Dhoni’s leadership had the ‘could have been Indian
wins or draws’ written all over and that was why his Test captaincy was
questioned again and again. His apparently defensive fielding tactics,
perplexing bowling changes and inability to go for the kill blemished his Test
career. He had created two contrasting records—crafted 27 wins in 60 Tests
making him the most winning Indian captain and at the same time won just 6 of
the 30 away Tests making him the most losing abroad Indian captain ever.
Last time Team India went to England (2014) they first
created history at Lords and then just surrendered the Series 1-3 thanks to the
‘tail’ and other vulnerable factors. Earlier, the South Africa tour was also no
better with possible winning chances neutralized. From that time onwards the
question of Dhoni continuing as Test captain raged. But then, there were other
factors, because MS Dhoni had excellent records in the other formats of the
game. He brought two World Cup titles—one in the one-day format after 28 years
in 2011 and the other in T20 format in 2007—for the country and maintained his
absolute stranglehold in the shorter formats as the captain.
However, thanks to the celebrated cricket clout of N
Srinivasan-BCCI-Dhoni-IPL-CSK fame nobody could have dethroned him even from
Test captaincy and therefore there was more of arrogance rather than pragmatism
or acceptance in his decision to retire suddenly. We talked about traces of arrogance in Dhoni as far back as 2009 and those traces grew into full fledged
arrogance over the years. Notwithstanding the tough proceedings of the Supreme
Court’s into the ‘conflict of interest’ of the IPL the clout still remains in
the shorter formats and Dhoni would continue to captain India there. Having said
that arguments offered by some that Dhoni should be sacked by the BCCI from
captaincy in all formats due to the arrogance and high-handedness of his
decision to retire are not justified. The greatest captain of Indian cricket
team still has a lot in him to deliver for India.
Indian cricket is just like that. Now the next focus
is on the World Cup-2015 and happenings in the Indian dressing room would
decide how successfully Mahendra Singh Dhoni leads India from here on. Team India
manager Ravi Shastri said after the historic Melbourne Test that in about a few
months the young and aggressive Indian cricket team would start delivering in
all formats of the game. He clearly indicated his confidence in Virat Kohli as
the next captain. At the moment, being positive and pragmatic about the this
great game of cricket would augur well for the Indian cricket team.
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