India's losses shouldn't be pinned solely on Dhoni
India at present
The ODI series has been a rollercoaster ride for the fans with both teams winning alternate games in the first four ODIs.The series decider at the Wankhede ended up being a massacre of India's pedestrian bowling with South Africa scoring a huge total of 438 in their 50 overs.
After guiding team India to a splendid victory over South Africa in the 2nd ODI, M.S.Dhoni was quoted as saying, "We're not playing to our capacity, not even 80%, in batting or bowling.”
Other than the ODI at Chepauk, the Indian team has performed miserably throughout (India scraped through to a win at Indore). While the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni himself have been able to put up splendid individual performances, the team as a whole has not performed to its potential, or rather say, half its potential.
There's an exponential growth as far as the number of people calling for Dhoni's retirement is concerned. It's quite natural to do so considering you've lost a series against Bangladesh and lost both the T20 and ODI series against South Africa.
"A captain is only as good as his team" is a cliched phrase that can be used for almost every sport. The game of cricket is no different. There’s no denying that currently, the team isn’t performing well enough.
Throwback to Dhoni's best time as captain
Dhoni’s best achievements as a captain has been taking the team to the top spot in the Test rankings and winning the three ICC trophies. During the former, Dhoni had one of the best batting line-ups in the world at his disposal. It was not just the stature of Sachin, Sehwag, Dravid and Laxman, but they were also performing at the highest level.
India also had two match-winning bowlers in Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh who were performing consistently in India, decently overseas.
In the ODI World Cup in 2011, an in-form Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan gave him wickets at regular intervals while the remaining bowlers helped create or sustain pressure on the opposition in familiar conditions to allow the captain good control over the game.
The Champions Trophy Win
Post the World Cup triumph, India lost most of its bowlers to injuries and new “younger” bowlers were blooded into the team. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar was the new ‘King of Swing’ for India. The emergence of Jadeja and Ashwin as the new spin twins helped the Indian team win plenty of games at home. With Ashwin having the temperament to bowl in any situation and Jadeja being economical, Dhoni was able to control the game and cash in on the teams batting prowess.
The Champions Trophy win stands testimony to this fact. With Dhawan and Rohit Sharma having a wonderful tournament, Kohli being Kohli, Ashwin and Jadeja taking wickets while being economical, India would’ve won the tournament under any decent captain.
The fact that the IPL scandal and the resulting media bashing would not affect the players performance was where Dhoni’s leadership abilities came to the front. He faced up every press conference as a captain should and didn’t let the young squad be affected by the hassles of the media.
Analysing India’s series losses
Almost all of India’s recent limited-overs series have been losses. The series against Bangladesh was lost 2-1. The tri-series in Australia prior to the World Cup saw India even fail to qualify for the final. Making it to the semi-finals of the World Cup has been the lone bright spot in a dismal year (not considering the friendly Zimbabwe tour).
The batsmen have obviously found it tough overseas with the conditions helping the bowlers. An intriguing fact is that the same applies for India’s bowlers as well. An in-depth stat analysis is going to reveal the same.
South Africa has been the most consistent side of recent times and the biggest reason for their success has been the fact that the team clicks as a unit. Teams like New Zealand and Australia have also performed well when both units have performed.
Where Dhoni is at fault
The biggest problem for India in ODIs after the World Cup has been the batting order. Dhoni has shuffled the batting order more times than a magician does with his deck of cards. Ajinkya Rahane is yet to prove his ability to rotate strike on tough slow tracks in the subcontinent. But as he showed at the Wankhede during the 5th ODI, on pitches that aid batting, he is a better pick than Ambati Rayudu.
However, India needs to pick a stable batting order and back it sooner rather than later keeping in mind the 2019 World Cup to be played in England.
Leading an inexperienced bowling attack, the Indian captain needs to talk to his bowlers, give them suggestions like he used to during India’s victorious T20 World Cup campaign. It’s one thing to give the bowlers freedom to bowl to their fields but a few words of wisdom during the game will help the bowlers mature.
Other than the one odd innings in Indore, Dhoni hasn’t looked at his best coming lower down the order to finish games.The new ODI rules have reduced the freedom with which batsmen can go for their shots in the death overs but that doesn’t justify his inability to finish games off late.
The captain also has a say in the team selection. The Indian team can take a leaf out of Australia’s selection process as they select individuals based on performances and not on age. It’s time we look at the present and not venture into the future. Harbhajan Singh has already proved to be handy and it wouldn’t do us harm if we select someone like Ashish Nehra with the T20 World Cup in mind considering his recent IPL performances and the current crops recent T20 performances.
Losing Ashwin to injury was unfortunate but the rest of the bowlers should begin to deliver good performances consistently. If the batsmen put in great performances, the team can win us the T20 World Cup at home. It isn’t rocket science but unless the batting and bowling unit consistently perform and click together, no skipper can lead this side to a victory in the 2016 World T20.