Why MS Dhoni should be sacked from Test captaincy after England debacle

Has Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s time expired as a Test captain?

India once again succumbed to the devils of defeat without a fight as England completed a second consecutive Test win in less than three days. The manner of these losses is more of a worry than just the results and losing margins. It is quite a harsh stain for any captain to go through such embarrassment, series after series, tour after tour.

When Indian batters followed each other to the shed, completing the formality of a second innings, India all but resigned their competitiveness. A look back at the historic Lord’s win in which Dhoni’s improvised tactics proved pivotal is something that is rubbing salt on the cuts and bruises, rather than an eyewash consolation.

The batsmen looked clueless, the fielders lacked intensity, the bowlers missed motivation, the captain lost instinct. Is that all? Defintely not – India surrendered the 5-match series 1-3 after getting an inspiring, well deserving and in some ways shocking 95-run win at the ‘Home of Cricket’.

This England tour of 2014 should be the wake-up call for the national selectors, if they fancy Indian Test cricket to pose some challenge on the next away tour in Australia. While Dhoni, the batsman, tried his best to cover up the failures of top order, the captain should be blamed for his unsuccessful attempts to inspire the team.

There is no denying the fact that Mahendra Singh Dhoni is and will be one of the greatest captains India has ever had. He will remain the captain who helped India to the coveted No.1 ranking in Tests. And while the majority of mediapersons and critics called for his head after the twin whitewashes three seasons earlier, he was deservingly retained as skipper by the Indian selectors.

A bunch of articles and headlines read that he was lucky not to face the axe after such a drubbing. And now, when his chosen men once again failed to crawl towards the winning line, if not cross it, against England at The Oval, the alarm bells have begun to ring again. One can expect this to be the final assignment for the 33-year-old as the skipper.

No reason why he should be retained

Before going into why the golden boy of Ranchi should make way for his successor, try answering why he should stay. We can only give some unconvincing replies to the unanswerable one-sided debate.

A string of away series defeats is not a proud record to look back at. Even though Dhoni might not be the one who should be sued for the 2011 England debacle when India had to do away with a handful of senior players, the following trip to Australa 2011/12 was anything but a competition. There were calls at that time for the board to sack the captain, who got a reputation of getting defensive when things failed to go his way.

His instinctive style of leadership that appeared miraculous to the critic’s eye at the start of his stint has gradually transformed as a gateway for them to hurl stones at the ‘captain cool.’ His young Indian team did its best in South Africa and New Zealand where Dhoni was again the target for letting the game drift.

Every human being (read cricketer) will go through a phase where he is desperately short of ideas and his tactics get outdated. During those periods, a batsman might be trained to change his approach, stance and even try out an alternate batting position. A bowler might be advised rest, to settle in on a pre-planned line and length, to maintain good run-ups and so on. But a skipper – the one who should make all the crucial decisions that affect the match like no other – can never afford to take the field with that ‘drained’ brain within his skull.

To add to that, we are talking about the game and format that is dependent on the captain’s moves more than any other sport in the world. In those circumstances, a team should not be relying on a leader who has been at the helm during a string of embarassing failures. It is not a morale-boosting thing for a team when a captain’s mind continues to remind him of his memories he his not very fond of.

Tactical and selection errors

Mahendra Singh Dhoni after the series loss in the post match presentation ceremony.

A counter argument might come as to what a captain is expected to do at a time when the batting order continues to fall like nine pins innings after innings. That goes back to question the captain’s preferred choices of replacement. Yes, this is a young team and it can only get bettter, but the captain is not getting any younger and we need some fresh ideas to take them forward. Duncan Fletcher should be thrown out too and a completely new captain-coach combination might provide the missing pieces of the jigsaw.

Gautam Gambhir is nowhere near the cricketer he is, but still made it to the playing XI. The batting collapse just got a boost with him as a lost opener at the top after Shikhar Dhawan’s absent form. India’s experiment with Stuart Binny and persistence with Ravindra Jadeja as the first choice spinner were moves that can hardly convince a common cricket fan to back his captain. Add to it the fact that the trusted men failed as though they were destined to, and things became all the worse for the skipper.

Then there were the bowling changes. Dhoni’s decision to hold back key bowlers at crucial times led to the team’s downfall several times in the past, and the story was repeated here. The absence of Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron at times when they threatended to run through the batting order raised plenty of eyebrows. Perhaps Dhoni’s (instinctive) ideas have started to fail him after he lost his ‘Midas touch’ seasons ago.

The Future

I’m definitely not coming to this conclusion just because of a few wrong moves and simplified strategies. There are simply a lot more things to mention than the ones discussed above. Dhoni’s reluctance to move on from his first choices in the name of giving a long rope to the players has more often than not buried the hopes of the fans.

This is definitely not the end of the world for the World Cup winning captain. India need him as the most experienced campaigner around, as the planned transition is taking a whole lot of time to ripe up. And he is still the right man to rely on as the limited overs skipper. But in the whites, it is time to move on.

The selection committee under Sanjay Patil has made some bold moves in the past. A passionate cricket follower with some common sense can see another one coming.

Dear Mahendra Singh Dhoni, your time is up.