MS Dhoni could be stripped of Test Captaincy if he loses in England, says Agarkar

Former India pacer Ajit Agarkar believes that Indian skipper MS Dhoni will be under severe pressure to win the Test series in England considering what happened the last time around.

MS Dhoni

Speaking to ESPN cricinfo ahead of the series opener, Agarkar also mentioned that the reason behind Dhoni still holding on to Test captaincy despite losing ten overseas Tests is because of the inexperienced Indian line-up.

“Dhoni has the added job to score runs as he is one of the few experienced guys in the team. In case he fails to score with the bat, his position as a player becomes a question straightaway,” he told Cricnifo.

Agarkar believes that Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara are the only two established batsmen in the Indian Test side and he says it would be too early to hand the captaincy over to one among them. But he feels that the selectors will find it very hard to retain Dhoni as captain if India lose again in England this time.

“Lost 10 straight Test matches away from home is not a record to be proud of. They have hung on to Dhoni as long as they can because there is no one else. Virat (Kohli) is the only one who is a certainty in the Test line-up and (Cheteshwar) Pujara has just come in. May be it's too early for Kohli, but if Dhoni loses this Test series, there will be serious questions,” he said.

Giles lends his support to MSD

Ashley Giles, the former English spinner on the other hand felt that Dhoni couldn’t be blamed for India’s Test debacles as he feels that over the years India’s top priority has been limited overs cricket and not Test Cricket. He says that also explains the success India has enjoyed in the shorter formats recently.

Giles praised Dhoni’s tactical abilities and said that the bowlers and batsmen have to respond for a team to achieve success and cited the example of Mitchell Johnson’t success with the ball which was a huge factor in Australia retaining the Ashes recently.

Giles was also quick to point out the same for the England Captain Alastair Cook who recently found support in the form of Indian coach Duncan Fletcher and MS Dhoni. He also echoed Agarkar’s views on Kohli taking over the Indian Captaincy sometime later in his career and not right now like some people want it to be.

Both men also agreed that the relatively inexperienced batting line ups will be looking up to their respective skippers to get runs on the board and lead the way. Both sides have a chance to jump to the third spot in the ICC rankings if they win this marquee series which happens to be India’s first ever five match Test series after a gap of 12 years.