Rahul Dravid too has come out and suggested that Dhoni needs to take a few more risks when playing abroad. The moot question, however, is "Does Dhoni have the confidence to lead overseas?"
Given that he is half the player away from home, does that have an impact on his captaincy? That Dhoni has not scored a match winning innings in overseas Test matches remains a blotch on his captaincy career.
Does personal performance or rather under-performance impact his team selection and is that why he opts to play safe rather than taking much needed risks on occasions? The selection of Ravindra Jadeja over Amit Mishra is a case in point.
All said and done it must be acknowledged that Dhoni is a captain struggling for ideas overseas and with England and Australia waiting to host India in the next ten months, his captaincy future needs an immediate injection of new ideas. In India, Dhoni is a completely different player and captain. More so the latter.
Prepare turners and throw the ball to Ravi Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha and Ravindra Jadeja. That's the prescription he follows and that's what has yielded him results over the past few years. Away from home, however, it is a different story.
He does not have the firepower in his pace department to get a team all out twice and his spinners haven't lived up to their billing on foreign soil. And Dhoni has looked afraid to experiment.
Why drop Ojha who is a far better left arm spinner than Jadeja? Is it because of Jadeja's batting, which, unfortunately doesn't inspire much confidence in overseas conditions. All Jadeja wants to do is slog and for someone who has two triple hundreds in domestic cricket, this is a clear sign of under-confidence.
Most important, however, is the question- does Dhoni have the selfbelief to turn it around? By suggesting at the end of the New Zealand series that the team is improving he has opened up a real can of worms.
India conceded close to 700 runs after having reduced New Zealand to 94-5. So where's the improvement? With the second new ball just 18 overs old we had Rohit Sharma and Jadeja bowling from either end.
New Zealand milked both these bowlers and made sure they moved to a position of comfort. And then came the instance Sourav Ganguly keeps referring to. When Ishant induced an edge of Brendon McCullum there was just one slip in position and the chance went amiss. Dhoni has already been scarred once in England.
For India's sake leading up to the world cup we need him to find his midas touch back when he leads the team to England in July. Frankly, there is no once to replace Dhoni just yet.
Virat captaining the team to England and Australia might just be too much for him especially with the world cup just months away. We have to persist with Dhoni because of the timing.
But may be it is time to look beyond Fletcher and Dawes and give Dhoni two new people who will bring new ideas to the table, encourage the captain to think afresh and think differently.
There is little doubt Indian cricket is facing a serious crisis overseas. By being in denial and suggesting we are improving with every series, Dhoni can't solve this crisis. Sport is all about performance and sooner than later his record will start speaking for itself. He needs to win and win badly.
A defeat isn't good enough and even the young team excuse will soon run out. None of his fast bowlers except Shami are young. Zaheer is close to retirement while Ishant and Umesh have been around for 7 and 4 years respectively.
More than enough time to mature into match winners. Interestingly, it is the batting, which is relatively young, that has shown promise. Virat, Pujara, Dhawan, Rahane all have shown the ability to adapt and succeed.
May be that's the silver lining we are looking for. May be Dhoni can reinvent himself one final time. India needs him to do so badly to remain competitive overseas.
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