The Indian test captaincy saga
Amidst all the talks and speculations, poor performances, batting collapses, series loss; one constant factor that revolved around this series was the impending sacking of the Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The team has had some disastrous results over the past few years in Tests overseas. Added to that the retirement of some of the seasoned campaigners and the sacking of some had only worsened the situation.
In times like these the onus comes on the captain to take charge and lead from the front. Unfortunately for Dhoni, he hadn’t been in the best of form lately apart from a couple of innings here and there. The pressure was building up. The beard was getting greyer. It was always going to be a difficult series.
India started the first test with stand-in skipper and the next in line for the throne Virat Kohli leading the team in place of an injured Dhoni. Rapidly being hailed as India’s future captain, Virat did everything right with the bat but sadly not as much with his leadership. And here, we’re talking about Virat the captain and not Virat the batsman.
However, it’ll also be wrong to blame that defeat on him as he could have done very little with the batsmen falling like nine pins from a potential winning position. Dhoni came back for the second Test but could not change much apart from a couple of changes in the playing XI. The third Test was an important one as it was India’s last chance to try and level the series. It was also the last chance at redemption for the Indian captain.
The usually cool as a cucumber skipper looked a pale shadow of himself. He looked a little disoriented. A little out of sorts. May be a little disinterested also. May be something was going on in his mind. May be a lot of things were going on in his mind.
In spite of the regular fall of wickets, a little resilience from the Kohli-Rahane pair and an arguably late declaration from the Aussies earlier in the day saw India limp to safety at the end of play. The Test match was saved. The Indian skipper was not. The series was gone. The Indian skipper was gone too.
Stepping down from the captaincy or even quitting after the series end would have been understandable, but retiring in the middle of a Test series is a little hard to digest. Dhoni has always been different. But retiring in the middle of a Test series is still hard to digest. Period!
Dhoni had hinted back in 2012 that he would have to retire from one format if he was to play the 2015 World Cup. The retirement was evident. The retirement was not surprising. The timing was.
If not for being the captain, Dhoni was doing very little to justify his place in the side. The stats say that he was one defeat short of equaling the record for most Test defeats as a captain. It is a right decision, but at the wrong time.
A word of thought for the “future” captain
The transformation from a calm and cool Dhoni to a red-hot Virat isn’t going to be easy. While the fact that Virat Kohli will turn out to be one of the finest batsmen to have played the game is beyond doubt, the same cannot be said about his captaincy. He needs to be a lot more mature. He needs to learn to limit his words. He needs to learn to speak the right stuff at the right time.
His recent statements regarding the Australians not respecting respect him and vice-versa were completely unwarranted and uncalled for. This team is young and inexperienced. They need someone with a better temperament than a Kohli. An aggressive young captain leading an aggressive young side seems like a very tempting prospect on paper. But things are different when on ground.
Virat’s bat is speaking now. But there would be a time when it won’t. At a time like that his own temperament is going to be his biggest threat. The team management needs to take a bold step. They need to look beyond the obvious.