Is Dhoni being kicked a final goodbye?
Till last year, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the ultimate authority when it came to Indian cricket. Be it with decisions on the field or the ones off it, the man with the "Midas Touch" called the shots. And with N Srinivasan manning the power corridors in the BCCI, there was no stopping Dhoni. But with Srinivasan’s exit as BCCI chief in March, things haven’t been rosy for one of India’s most successful skippers. In fact, it has only got worse in the last few months.
It all started with Test skipper Virat Kohli openly criticising the team’s decision-making on the field during the humiliating 1-2 loss in the one day international (ODI) series against Bangladesh. Even as the world looked at answers as to how the Indians failed to win the series, Kohli stirred up a hornet’s nest by clearly questioning the approach of the team.
“We are not expressing ourselves like we normally do and we are used to. We have been sort of doubtful in our decision-making and that shows on the field. I don’t need to say it in an interview, our cricket watchers and experts can see it; our guys are not confident about expressing themselves. In the first two games, we failed to express ourselves with a clarity of mind,” he said.
Not one to back down, Dhoni took a dig at Kohli after the series and said that the think tank needed to decide if they indeed wanted bowlers who were just quick or ones who could bowl well. But even there, Kohli found support from the chief selector Sandeep Patil who made it clear, after picking the squad for the Sri Lanka Test series, that the pacers were good enough and the best the country had at present.
“I am not talking about what Dhoni has said. But we are always trying to get a proper balance. And the wickets in Sri Lanka are such that we felt this is the best possible bowling combination. All selectors felt we can go ahead with it. (The) captain (Dhoni) has all the rights to make a comment and we have no objection to that. It is for the BCCI to react to that,” he said.
In fact, the ODI series against Bangladesh also saw Dhoni question Ajinkya Rahane’s ability to rotate the strike in the shorter format. But Rahane’s coach — Pravin Amre — was quick to back his ward and made it clear that Rahane had done enough in the World Cup in Australia to show his class. “See, the World Cup is the biggest ODI event and if you see Rahane’s performance Down Under, it is testimony that all this talk about his failure to up the strike rate, doesn’t really bother him,” he said.
But the last nail in the coffin has to be close aide and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) teammate Suresh Raina’s decision to end his partnership with Rhiti Sports - a player management agency owned by Dhoni's friend Arun Pandey - and join IOS Sports and Entertainment. In fact, speaking to Mail Today, Raina made it clear that he wasn’t willing to play second fiddle to Dhoni any more. “As long as I do well on the field and the company representing me is big, I just need to be managed well and the rest shall take care of itself. I am convinced the change will be a very positive one for me as they have a very professional approach,” Raina said.
As Dhoni enters the home stretch of his international career, it seems to be a case of everyone abandoning the sinking ship, which is India’s ODI captain.