Indian Cricket

Finally people have started taking notice of some issues I have been cribbing about Dhoni's captaincy. See Jagadish here

Sources within the BCCI are extremely pissed off that this attitude hides India's actual on-field performances, including some bizarre captaincy against Pakistan where the skipper MS Dhoni hid himself at #5 during a chase of 300+. In Yuvraj's absence, Dhoni was clearly the side's best batsman. So why he sent Kohli ahead of himself and Raina was difficult to understand.

This wasn't the first time he showed a lack of leadership though. During the T20 World Cup, he batted at 4 against Bangladesh & Ireland, and went in at #6 against England.

Make no mistake Dhoni is a genuinely smart captain. In the initial stages he ensured that he used it to for the team. Of late, since he established himself beyond criticism he seems to be using the smarts to ensure his record becomes better. Can you believe that he has the best batting record in the last year when India has repeatedly failed throughout the year. We have seen this exploitation of captaincy for personal benefit in the fag end of his career in Ganguly. But, Ganguly did it after leading India for 6-7 years not a small 1-2 year period. I hope Dhoni can get back to his old team ways and not try to exploit the situation for his benefit. In addition to the above instances I can recollect a number of other instances where Raina was sent ahead of Dhoni when the situation demanded quick runs. However, if we were batting first Dhoni routinely walks in at three. I always disagreed with this strategy to hold himself back when its crunch situation and come out to bat when there is an option of free runs especially when youngsters would have been better off with such easy run opportunities!

Now with the setting up of the Delhi clique it will not be a cake walk for Dhoni. It is no secret that Sehwag and Dhoni are not on good terms. Sehwag, in a smart move, has abdicated his interests for captaincy and started promoting Gambhir for the captaincy role. Viru gets along with Gautam. In fact they are best buddies. So, he has no issues with Gauti being captain in place of Dhoni. Moreover, the Delhi group is growing in size with Ishant, Amit Mishra, and Muaf Patel.

Lets see what the future holds for Viru and Dhoni!