MS Dhoni: The leader India needs right now

“People salute the rising Sun and slam the setting Sun!”

Not long ago, India was humbled by England in the recently concluded Test series 3-1. There was, then, a certain level of campaign kicked-off by almost all the news channels; their so-called “experts” slamming the captain and suggested to find a suitable replacement to lead the nation in the longer format of the game.

However, after the disappointing Test series, he got back his form in a grand style in the next two One-Day series, scoring a masterful unbeaten century against the arch-rivals, Pakistan, when the top 5 batsmen of our celebrated batting line-up lasted for just 29 runs under 10 overs. A series of good scores followed in the next two matches and in the 5-match ODI series against England. All of a sudden, MS Dhoni became indispensable to Indian cricket once again and now his tactics to stick with Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja were hailed as “Masterstrokes”.

Does this mean that all is well and MS Dhoni has brought the modifications in his game to have that same effect that he used to have on the Indian cricket once? I don’t think so.

First and foremost, no one can deny his contribution to Indian cricket and the statistics speak for themselves in his case. He’s the only Indian captain to win 2 World Cups. He has an average of over 50 in ODIs with over 7000 runs and has been applauded as the best one day player, by almost all the legends of the game. It seems that Dhoni can’t do anything wrong in ODIs. The only problematic area is his captaincy in the Test Cricket.

While in ODIs and T20s, the main aim is to reduce an opponent and restrict them to a smaller score, the key to win a Test match is to take 20 wickets of the opponent rather than to restrict them from scoring. This is where Dhoni seems to struggle.

He has mastered the art of captaincy for the shorter format of the game and used some bits and player to their optimum use there. Basically, Dhoni is a defensive captain. He tries to dry out the runs from the batsmen and then waits for them to make a mistake. This approach is very effective when it comes to ODIs and T20 but not so in Tests.

A captain has to be aggressive in Test matches and look out for wickets rather than waiting for things to happen by themselves. This is where I would like to bring a change in Dhoni. I would like Dhoni to change his approach and be aggressive in the longer version of the game.

On the other hand, if he feels that changing his style may affect him and his performance in other formats too, then he should not change himself at all. Also, this should not mean that he gives up his captaincy at this juncture of time, especially when Gambhir has been shown the door, Sehwag is as unpredictable as ever, Sachin nearing the end of his career and no other player has a decent experience behind him to lead the country. Moreover, any change in leadership now, when we will be playing Tests abroad, may destabilize the entire team.

This is where the Indian selectors should come into picture. The selectors should direct Dhoni to identify his successor and groom him adequately so that the transition of this shifting in leadership is a smooth process.

As for the shorter formats are concerned, no changes is required, at least in the captaincy. We just need to sit back and enjoy all that MS Dhoni has to offer to the Indian cricket for some more time to come. We all want him to lift the World Cup 2015 before he hangs his boots. I hope he succeeds!