M S Dhoni takes morale responsibility of series loss in Bangladesh and offers to quit captaincy which speaks volumes of his greatness. However, do we really have anyone of captain potential who can walk into Dhoni’s shoes and lead India to ‘aache din’ for Indian cricket? The answer is a clear ‘No’ and it must be understood that our shameful loss in Bangladesh was a collective bad performance from Team India in which Captain Dhoni at least showed some courage to fight back.
Critics should simply not go after captain Dhoni because they want to make somebody as a scapegoat. Former India captain B S Bedi wants Dhoni to do yoga. I wish Bedi had done yoga in his cricket playing days as he was the most unfit player in the team who could hardly run on the ground.
But, several former Indian cricketers put their weight behind the beleaguered Dhoni and said that he should continue as captain of the ODI team.
Former captain Sourav Ganguly demanded respect for beleaguered Mahendra Singh Dhoni, saying he has astonishing One-day records as skipper and needs to be given all the time in the world to take a decision.
Following India’s defeat in the second ODI against Bangladesh, in an unusual show of emotions, Dhoni last night said he can step away from captaincy if it brings back good days to Indian cricket. Ganguly said one must not take it seriously since Dhoni’s words were result of frustration.
M S Dhoni is fit as a fiddle, performing reasonably well and we should if need be groom India’s future ODI captain under Dhoni’s guidance. Dhoni is India’s most successful captain ever in all forms of cricket and we have won ODI and T-20 world championships under him and many more historic win under his leadership. Let’s all not sing his Swanson as yet and Dhoni, I am sure is matured enough to retire from cricket when he thinks his good days are behind him. Former Indian captains like Bishan Singh Bedi, Dilip Vengsarkar and Ajit Wadekar and players like Chetan Chauhan, Chandu Borde, Syed Kirmani and Kiran More strongly backed Dhoni, saying that there was no need to press the panic button and he is the best bet till the 2016 World T20. Another former wicket-keeper Kiran More also threw his weight behind Dhoni to continue as captain, saying that the call for change of leadership was unnecessary. Former wicket-keeper Vijay Dahiya, on his part, said that any change in ODI captaincy at the moment was uncalled for.
No need to press the panic button. Any change in ODI captaincy I feel at the moment is uncalled for. Dhoni knows how to play according to situations. I would like Dhoni to continue as after retiring from Tests, he has enough time to concentrate on the other two formats and may be rework his strategies.
When the going gets tough the tough gets going and I have a feeling that Dhoni’s best is yet to come and lets have patience to witness that. May be, he could win us one more T-20 and ODI championships in the years to come.
S N Kabra
