MISSING 'MIDAS TOUCH' !!!

By Dr.V.V. Giri

“When Kapil bowls to Dean Jones, where will you field?”

Sunil Gavaskar asked Srikkanth, this question on the dinner table on the eve of India Australia match during the 1985 Benson Hedges World Cup in Australia. India went on to win the cup in a most convincing and easy way and as you all know, Ravi Shastri became “Champion of Champions” posing with “Audi” car.

This Cup victory was a typical example of “Planning” and “Home work” a team is expected to do before a cricket event. Every team does a good home work, SWOT analysis on their own as well as the opponents and has clear plans, back up plans etc. Planning is extremely important in Test cricket. The teams are provided with batting coach, bowling coach, fielding coach, psychologists, managers and a chief coach to help the captain to have options and plans.

Strangely, Indian captain M.S.Dhoni doesn’t believe in planning. In an interview after the World Cup, he openly admitted that he is not a planner and doesn’t believe in team meetings. In such case, I wonder why BCCI is wasting their money and time on coaches and sub staff for India.

We have often seen, Dhoni making blunders in reading the wicket, condition and opponents and end up with bad - toss selection as well as playing eleven selections. In the recently concluded World Cup, he made many mistakes in team composition (by including Piyush Chawla, Nehra and Sreesanth over Aswin) which nearly knocked India out of the World Cup.

This statement of Dhoni shocked many and people concluded that this captain was winning all the matches through instincts and sheer luck. Of course Dhoni is known for his “Midas touch” from the beginning, when he beat Pakistan in the T20 world Cup. From the West Indies tour this year, things are not working in his favor. Playing test matches outside especially in England is tough for any captain. India already suffered two defeats, where the fingers are pointing at the captain.

Now, is this the end of the glory days of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the captain who could do no wrong? Considering how India have fared in two Tests in which, in phases, they had as much of a chance as England to win, it is only right to conclude things have caught up with Dhoni.

Even in the extended theatre of Test cricket, opportunities do not come knocking more than once. And India spurned those two chances at Lord's and Trent Bridge and will probably slide freely back to old days and old ways. It was when the opportunities came knocking that the ever cool, super instinctive Dhoni joined the ordinary mortals who had led India before him.

The first instance came at Lord's when England were 92 for five and in danger of being bowled out. But Dhoni, who has been known to push on with his main bowlers like a strict task master more than many of his gentler predecessors, was inclined to agree with a young Ishant Sharma that he needed a rest, that too after a 40-minute luncheon break.

The second came when England, under grave threat of being bowled out under a Nottingham overcast sky, began counterattacking through Stuart Broad. It was here that Dhoni stood exposed. He was as clueless about how to get past Broad as many Indian captains before him who merely stood with their hands on their hips when the bowlers failed to deliver.

A once smart Dhoni, guided more by instinct than the ordinary rules of battle for engagement, had very little to offer. I know watching television is not the best way to come to easy conclusions. But it did seem as if the skipper had no clear guidance to give to his bowlers when they were being taken apart by boundary hits. There were no strategy time outs as it were to help his bowlers regroup and focus again on the task at hand.

Dhoni was never the one to overtly help bowlers by holding deep conversations with them. He was more the type to give them a free run once he chose a bowler to keep on in the attack. He was always seen as the ultra cool skipper who backed his bowlers to deliver. Somehow, those tactics, admirable as they always seemed, did not work at crucial junctures in the winner-take-all kind of Test series.

Adding to all these, his indifferent form with both his keeping and batting is haunting him. In the two tests in England, Dhoni was easily struggling in wicket keeping and he had no clue on the swing bowling.

India is facing an ‘English White Wash’ in this series. I think, Mahi won't be seen anymore as the “Captain with the Midas touch”.