Saturday 21 March 2015

10/10 for batting.
For Captaincy and specifically selection.
Dhoni can look past world class players like Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj, Gambhir, Harbhajan. Dhoni has backed young players like Dhawan, Jadeja, Rohit Sharma and Raina even when they have been going through some challenging phases.
He hasn't been able to take firm decisions on senior players.
Dropped. Recalled. Dropped. Recalled. The consequences are.
One has scored 115 runs in 9 innings with a best of 37 on this tour and had to be dropped midway through the tournament, even though he was using vague justification to try and accommodate him at every possible opportunity in press conferences.
One has been wicketless in six of the seven matches.
Neither of these were in the 15 man squad for the Champions Trophy and yet finds themselves playing the big one. Sums up the indecisiveness of his selection.
There seems to be little direction to his one day captaincy. Younger player aren't given extended opportunities and quickly find themselves ditched in favour of tried and tested seniors.
Once you make a decision you stick by it. I expected much better from him. The results probably wouldn't have made a huge difference, but there is a lot more to gain by working with a younger set of players. Unless they are exceptionally important and reliable such as himself or a Sangakkara, 34+ aged players have little to offer in modern limited overs cricket.
One of the hallmarks of his Test captaincy success has been consistent selection and sticking with players at all costs. Same cannot be said about his one day captaincy. Complete opposite.
It only comes around every four years. It's gone now. Nothing can be done. But one thing which has really frustrated me.

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