Pre and post-Dhoni: India's wicket-keeper curse

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Cricket has never seen a wicketkeeper of Dhoni's acumen

Indian cricket has always been majorly about its batting prowess. Time and again, from Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath to Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, we have seen a plethora of terrific exponents of batting. The next thing would be the art of spin-bowling - from the famed spin quartet to the legendary Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, and Ravichandran Ashwin. Courtesy the new crop, finally, we also have pacers worth remembering apart from Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath, and Zaheer Khan. However, there is one department in which Indian cricket has always been behind, save for one lone star.

Wicket-keeping.

How many of us remember a wicket-keeper other than Mahendra Singh Dhoni for their consistent performances? Syed Kirmani may be remembered for his partnership with Kapil Dev in the 1983 World Cup. Kiran More may be remembered for his on-field antics. But no one could come even remotely close to Dhoni for the sheer impact he has had on the team. He has been around for about 15 years, making Indians conveniently forget their inadequacies in creating quality keepers.

He's unconventional, street smart and one of a kind, generational talent

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Now, the sun is setting on an illustrious career. Stepping into those huge shoes is going to be a task. The new entrant, the replacement is supposed to replace arguably the best-ever wicket-keeper the game has seen. Forget that, Dhoni was a tactician, a multi-faceted lower-order batsman, and an excellent leader. Though Virat Kohli is still to prove himself on the big stage, he has proven to be quite capable as the captain. From the tactics perspective, at least there is Rohit Sharma to provide a good second opinion. But, India still needs two more things - a skilled wicketkeeper and a safe batsman.

Pant is good, but surely not the best keeper around

The curse is, even the selectors have varied opinions on which of these attributes should the focus primarily be. Dinesh Karthik is a sound keeper, but age stands against him. Rishabh Pant is a swashbuckling batter, but has temperament issues and is not the best keeper around. Sanju Samson is a technically sound batsman and a no-frills keeper, but hasn't shown the flamboyance to get the selectors' confidence. KL Rahul is an even better batsman but is more like his namesake Dravid who took up the mantle in spite of not being a natural.

Sanju Samson has not done much wrong but has not done much right either

Even more abominable is the attitude of the spectators. Dhoni has provided us so many moments of individual brilliance over the years that the crowd expects the same from the person who replaces him. The same crowd forgets how mediocre Dhoni was in the formative years of his gameplay, when he was more of a belligerent batsman who could just manage the gloves. Amplifying the already intense pressure of expectations, every small mistake from the new keeper is met with chants of "Dhoni, Dhoni..." There is seldom a worse predicament than getting booed by your own home crowd for even the simplest of mistakes.

Has KL Rahul finally found where he fits in the Indian line-up?

As of what we have seen, Pant seems to be the successor backed by the selectors. Perhaps they expect him to evolve as Dhoni did. However, if performance till now is taken into account, Pant needs to improve by leaps and bounds, especially for the longer formats of the game. Maybe, bringing in Rahul into the equation is the right move. Whatever be the case, there is one truth to understand: for both selectors and spectators, Dhoni is a once-in-history player. The ideal strategy for replacing him is not searching for the next Dhoni or comparing the newcomer with the legend, but to find a player who just fits into the team's scheme of things, nothing more and certainly nothing less.

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