As someone who has idolized the way M.S.Dhoni has gone about playing the game of cricket over the period of his career, the last few days have been particularly hard. While I have been left feeling gutted about a potential Indian win going down the drain, the hordes of Indian fans calling for the skipper's head has come as a slight shock to me.
I could go down the road taken most often, and say that his bowlers have been letting him down. But, the truth is, he has been going into a shell as well. The defensive fields that have been much talked about, and have given him much success in India, where he has a win loss record of 24 to 3 (of the 3 losses, 2 came to a spirited English side, and 1 to the South Africans during a period when they were practically unbeatable). The truth is, in this New Zealand tour, the seamers did a fantastic job in 2 of the 4 innings, a bad job in one more, and a terrible job when it mattered most. But to call for Dhoni's head for that is a bit too much I feel.
Come on, the man gave you the T20 World Cup, the ICC Champions Trophy, took you up the ladder to World No. 1, and gave you world cricket's biggest prize, the World Cup, he is not a bad captain. Yes, he has had a terrible away record, but I think any layman would admit that the performances in SA and NZ were markedly better than those in Australia and England. That is quite something, coming in the wake of losing batting superstars, and it is a fact to take so much heart from that our batting seems kind of settled. Bowling has always been India's weak link abroad, but it is absolutely necessary for the team to build, and build in the right way, something that has been missing. So where does Dhoni's head come in here? He is the man leading the transition this team is undergoing, sort of what Allan Border had to do with Australia, coming into a superstar team, at the top of the world, going into the deepest phase of Aussie cricket as skipper, and then leaving it after rebuilding in those safe big slip-catching hands of Mark Taylor. It is MSD's chance, and duty, to do the same, and he is well on course I'd say.
For all those who call for MSD's head, and blame him and his fans, it's not like we aren't hurt by the loss. I sat up all night to watch the final day in Johannesburg, and Wellington was an even longer ordeal. That doesn't make MSD responsible for everything. Yes, the captain that he is, he does take responsibility, but let us give the man a break and let him try stuff on his own. You can't have a Kohli leading India into England, unchartered territories for the young man. As one of the best cricketing minds India has produced says here, Dhoni has earned himself the right to lead the nation until the Australian tour in tests, a period that would culminate in the 2015 World Cup. It's a last chance for the man to redeem himself, to correct his records in these nations. It would be great to see him to do that, hard it will be with the kind of bowling line up he possesses, but as we have always seen him do, let's see if the magician can pull one last rabbit out of the hat. If he does, it'll be fantastic, if he doesn't, well it wouldn't dent the already terrible away record much anyway, so that's something I'd be able to live with!
I could go down the road taken most often, and say that his bowlers have been letting him down. But, the truth is, he has been going into a shell as well. The defensive fields that have been much talked about, and have given him much success in India, where he has a win loss record of 24 to 3 (of the 3 losses, 2 came to a spirited English side, and 1 to the South Africans during a period when they were practically unbeatable). The truth is, in this New Zealand tour, the seamers did a fantastic job in 2 of the 4 innings, a bad job in one more, and a terrible job when it mattered most. But to call for Dhoni's head for that is a bit too much I feel.
Come on, the man gave you the T20 World Cup, the ICC Champions Trophy, took you up the ladder to World No. 1, and gave you world cricket's biggest prize, the World Cup, he is not a bad captain. Yes, he has had a terrible away record, but I think any layman would admit that the performances in SA and NZ were markedly better than those in Australia and England. That is quite something, coming in the wake of losing batting superstars, and it is a fact to take so much heart from that our batting seems kind of settled. Bowling has always been India's weak link abroad, but it is absolutely necessary for the team to build, and build in the right way, something that has been missing. So where does Dhoni's head come in here? He is the man leading the transition this team is undergoing, sort of what Allan Border had to do with Australia, coming into a superstar team, at the top of the world, going into the deepest phase of Aussie cricket as skipper, and then leaving it after rebuilding in those safe big slip-catching hands of Mark Taylor. It is MSD's chance, and duty, to do the same, and he is well on course I'd say.
For all those who call for MSD's head, and blame him and his fans, it's not like we aren't hurt by the loss. I sat up all night to watch the final day in Johannesburg, and Wellington was an even longer ordeal. That doesn't make MSD responsible for everything. Yes, the captain that he is, he does take responsibility, but let us give the man a break and let him try stuff on his own. You can't have a Kohli leading India into England, unchartered territories for the young man. As one of the best cricketing minds India has produced says here, Dhoni has earned himself the right to lead the nation until the Australian tour in tests, a period that would culminate in the 2015 World Cup. It's a last chance for the man to redeem himself, to correct his records in these nations. It would be great to see him to do that, hard it will be with the kind of bowling line up he possesses, but as we have always seen him do, let's see if the magician can pull one last rabbit out of the hat. If he does, it'll be fantastic, if he doesn't, well it wouldn't dent the already terrible away record much anyway, so that's something I'd be able to live with!
No comments:
Post a Comment