M S Dhoni- Losing his lucky charm?

When MS Dhoni became the captain of India T20 team for first WC in 2007 in South Africa, It was accepted immediately. It was believed that he was recommended by Ganguly, Dravid, Kumble and above all, Sachin himself. There was another theory that Kumble was made test captain in 2006 only because Dhoni was too young to captain Test team, not that India never had younger captains but in the times of Patudi and Kapil, it was only test cricket and they were thrown in deep end. But now, there are 3 forms of cricket and there was an option to ease him in for the main job, especially if you think there was Aus tour lined up very soon and senior pro as captain was better option. In hindsight, considering what happened in Sydney 2008, it was good call too..




Dhoni's first major assignment was WC T20 2007, More so when you think there were no Senior in the team, Sehwag was the most senior and he hadn't had even 10 years of international cricket till then.
Going by the early results, Dhoni seemed to had golden touch and his every move on the field was paying off, including even playing Yusuf pathan in final in place of Sehwag and giving that last over to Joginder Sharma.. think about it, Joginder hadn't played for India since..




He was winning everything, including 2-0 against Aus at home. It was an unbeaten run in tests, first time India won the tri series in Aus in 2008. India being defeated in T20 WC 2009 and 2010 was just ignored as team failure as focus was shifting to WC 2011 which was always just months away.
Dhoni achieved the dream with that six in the night of Mumbai and it seemed that India is finally going to be the super power on cricket field as it was off it. Dhoni had ensured his place in history...




Things started to go wrong from there...
India lost all games on tour to England, it was mostly put to fitness and sudden failure of batting greats.. Dhoni had his share of bad luck with Zaheer walking off on first morning and Harbhajan forgot how to spin..there were questions on his judgement when Dhoni called RP singh from his holidays and played him in last test even when Munaf Patel was in squad.. some eyebrows were raised but everything was over shadowed by batting failures, Dravid the wall, and Sachin's quest for 100th 100. After winning against WI at home, real test came in Australia.
Australia test series was the first time when cracks in his captaincy started to show up. No Tactical moves in field..defensive field settings to allow 200s and 300s from Aussies...No change in batting line up even when Perth test was lost in 2 days...Series was already gone but Dhoni didn't change the line up.. was it his ploy to keep playing the legends in the gamble that they were his best bet for revival and if they fail again, calls for their retirement will grow so loud that he will be spared the tough call and aging middle order will go away on its own.. we will never know...
Then came the tri series, first the rotation of seniors to let Rohit Sharma play, even Sachin was made to sit out.. then the mention of slowness of seniors..and Sehwag's reaction in press conference.. then the only game Ind won against Aus, Gambhir made a point to mention that Dhoni shouldn't have left it too late.. was it just communication gap?
It seemed that Dhoni the batsman still there but captain is loosing tactical touch..the street smartness which made him lucky earlier..
Not much has changed since then.. After winning the first WC T20 in 2007, India hasn't made to last 4 in next 3 editions..
Dhoni the captain had taken some calls on team selections which defies any logic.. consider this in last WC T20
- Making Irfan open in league game against Eng to give a chance to Chwala..ok but why Irfan? when its matter of just 20 overs, why not a specialist batsman? why the long middle order for just 120 balls?
- Why continue with same combination against Aus in super 8s? Knowing that in this format, loosing one game means it will come down to NRR, which no team alone can control? Even then, No Virat to open the batting..
- when team won against Pak, same combination against SA, knowing and watching the previous game at same ground that Spin is key..No Harbhajan..
Dhoni has tried to push his luck one more time..something works onetime then dont change till it fails..no proactive calls,no tough decisions,no picking of players except from CSK (Raina and Ashwin) , no backing of Umesh Yadav and Varon Aaron.. happy to play with what he gets.. no asking and standing behind some players like Ganguly.. if it wasn't for Ganguly, imagine no Yuvraj , Harbhajan, Zaheer and Sehwag today...
Dhoni probably had last roll of dice now, Eng and Aus are coming to India and Dhoni would feel he has good chance of winning at home.. he may as well be right.. But is winning now is more important than being able to win for long time.. He may still continue as captain till end of 2013 (though he had mentioned about leaving one format by then, most likely tests to focus on defending WC 2015).




Question is, what can he do for India between now and then.. Ganguly never won the WC but Indian fans still call him 'Dada'.. and swear by his legacy in Indian cricket.. how the history will remember Dhoni.. the captain who won the WC for India after 28 years or who gave India the players who kept us on top for next 28 years.. We will find it with England series..
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