Former Australia captain Ian Chappell feels Mahendra Singh Dhoni is overstaying his time as India’s limited over skipper and it is having debilitating effect on the Indian team.
“One tendency a successful captain has to guard against is outstaying his welcome. Captains have a use-by-date, after which their influence over the team’s performance either wanes to the point of being negligible or their presence actively hampers the side,” Chappell wrote in a column in ESPNcricinfo.
“MS Dhoni reached the latter stage some time back. The current Indian side is badly in need of new ideas and different stimulation; when the opposition has racked up nearly 1300 runs in four ODI innings, it’s not all down to flat pitches and wayward bowling.
“Apart from a short period at Manuka Oval where he encouraged Ravindra Jadeja to taunt Mitchell Marsh, Dhoni has provided precious little inspiration to his bowlers. Sure, they have been inconsistent but the bowlers also aren’t inspired by field placings that are primarily employed to contain, in the hope that the batsmen will self-destruct.”
Chappell feels India Test captain Virat Kohli can provide the team will a fresh approach as he has proved in the longer format of the game.
“It’s not as if India don’t have an alternative. Virat Kohli has shown himself to be an aggressive leader and he is also in excellent batting form,” he wrote.
“When Dhoni started out in the job he was a shrewd captain in all forms of the game and experienced widespread success. However, a captain overstaying his time can have the same debilitating effect on a team as appointing the wrong player for the job in the first place.”
‘India team balanced in T20’
India might have been thoroughly outplayed in the ODI series, but former Australia batsman Dean Jones on Sunday said the visitors will do much better in the three T20 Internationals as they have a balanced side, which was missing in the one-dayers.
“look, I think India are much better balanced in T20 cricket; they have good top three batsmen, MS Dhoni is the finisher in the middle, Yuvraj is coming too and then you have the spinners. It is a balanced side, just not for ODIs in Australia,” said Jones.
Jones is convinced that the Indian team has been solely concentrating on the Twenty20 series with the World T20 just eight weeks away.
“The bottomline is what India, and MS Dhoni, want out of this tour. I am sure they wanted to win the ODI series but they were also giving a lot of youngsters chances in the ODIs. I think India will be more worried about winning the T20 series. That’s the priority,” Jones said.
Stating that India would be looking to build-up their options before they settled on a final squad, Jones said: “You want to pick your team for the World T20 now and give the players some matches to get ready for that tournament.
“Form is everything in T20 cricket. For example, if Yuvraj can get some runs here, it will get his confidence going. You pitch it up to him then and he will whack it. That’s what the T20 game is about — confidence.”
After this series, starting here on January 26, India will play two more T20 series — first against Sri lanka at home and then the Asia Cup in Bangladesh — that will give them enough opportunities to evaluate their options.
Talking about Australian team’s chances in the World T20, Jones said, “They will definitely take two spinners, but I am not sure if Nathan lyon will be one of them. They will need some good death bowlers, as Starc will probably be missing the tournament. Injuries are really hurting Australia’s bowlers, so that is troublesome.
“But we have five-six players from the World Cup winning team playing this series. And they can all whack it, it will be a good team and I will be disappointed if they don’t make the semi-finals even without Starc. We haven’t won a T20 World Cup and we are due. If we win one, Australia can thank the IPl because that’s where they have learnt how to play it.”
The former cricketer also felt that India got their bowling combination wrong.
“India have got their batting right. But look, 70 per cent of ODI cricket is now about defense. India’s fielding got worse as the series went on, and they got their bowling combination wrong. You cannot have two spinners here in Australia, you just cannot.
“In India, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin bowl very well because the ball bursts off the pitch and goes everywhere. They are unplayable. But it doesn’t happen here. You just cannot play two spinners here and get away with it,” he signed off.
Maxwell to miss T20 opener
Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell was on Sunday ruled out of the first T20 International against India here on Tuesday after sustaining a hamstring injury which forced him to fly back home to Melbourne.
“He has still got a little slight hamstring niggle so ... he will spend a few days in Melbourne at home and join the squad when we get there in a couple of days,” acting coach Michael Di Venuto told reporters at airport here.
In Maxwell’s absence, Travis Head could make his international debut for the side on Tuesday.