18 September 2007

Biting the bullet.

The selectors have made the tough decision. This signals a new era in Indian cricket. India is going to be captained by a "small town" boy. It is also pretty clear now that an Indian ODI team will never again be led on to the field by Sachin or Saurav or Dravid - and that is momentous. They have not gone for the safe harbour of Sachin/Saurav. Instead, they have thrown Dhoni into the deep end of the pool. His first assignment? Seven ODIs at home against the Aussies.

It is no secret that many in the establishment believed that Dhoni did not have the necessary experience to take on the mantle, and I would tend to agree with that. But now that they have decided to go ahead with him, it is important that he be given a reasonable period to prove himself. And as far as captaining the Indian ODI team is concerned, nothing less than a year is good enough to make our assessment. The selectors - not to mention the cricket fan - should be patient with the results that Dhoni will bring home.

In time, Dhoni will probably need to choose between captaincy and wicketkeeping. However, it is for him to decide, and it should not be forced on him on the basis of some mythical "burden". But since he is a certainty with the bat in the ODI line-up and he can afford to do so, particularly since both Karthik and Parthiv Patel are legitimate contenders for a middle-order berth in ODIs.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

john, i don't see how this is a bold move. sachin was not an option because he wants to take breaks whenever he wants. sourav would have been tough to handle because he has a mind of his own. yuvraj too is not the mellow sort. so i would say they've made the safest choice, and that's why it will fail. let's see at the end of a year if we're still blogging with india losing everything :)

John said...

Why do you think a captain needs to be of a certain mental character? Agreed, ganguly was our best captain in recent times, but why should every captain who follows him be set in the same mould? Why is it that patience and leading-by-example are not the attributes they used to be?

Unknown said...

that's a good point you make. there are different routes to success. at any rate, i prefer dhoni to dravid or sachin, and he may prove to be a better choice than ganguly and yuvraj too.