The decisions which first were considered master strokes are suddenly going horribly wrong, but even after their sixth consecutive overseas defeat and eighth under MS Dhoni, many refrain from criticizing him and experts like Harsha Bhogle are saying, “There is only a little captain can do about it when his batsmen and bowlers are letting him down”. But I don’t agree to this. If World Cup win was the peak of his captaincy, it has drastically come down right from the test series in West Indies where he went defensive and called a draw when India needed 86 off 90 balls with 7 wickets in hand. That was the beginning of the downfall and signs of his bed-of-roses transforming to that of thorns. No words for the humiliating whitewash in England.
Choosing to bat after winning the toss at the SCG and failing badly is the point of high disappointment for me. I say this because being regarded as a smart and bold captain, he should have been more thoughtful. Australia won the toss and chose to bat first in their last two tests at SCG against Pakistan and England in 2010 and 2011 respectively. The result – Australia bowled out for 127 in first innings and Pakistan scoring 333 in reply and it wasn’t very different against England as the hosts were struggling at 189-8 but eventually reached a respectabe total of 280, thanks to useful contributions by tailenders but in reply, England scored a mammoth 644 which yielded an innings loss for the Aussies in the Ashes. Looking at the last two tests and even considering MCG where India played relatively well until the third day where they bowled well to limit Aussies to 323 and in reply, they where comfortable at 214/3. Dhoni should have looked at all of this and should have taken the bold decision of bowling first on a seaming track.
The Coach:
After the worst period under Guru Greg, India enjoyed merry times under Guru Gary by conquering the world. I understand that Fletcher is yet to complete a year with the team but his tactics aren’t working at all. The one thing which has bugged me is the tactic of going defensive way to early. I am very sure that setting fielders at deep-point and deep-square are Fletcher inspired because he had success doing this and frustrating Aussies in the 2004 Ashes but England had runs on the board and could afford such tactics but not India. He is known for his technical approach to the game which I feel isn’t suiting India well as the Indian team under Gary was all about new and fresh strategies. Fletcher, being so analytic, should have initiated the move of bowling first in-order to protect a fragile batting which once again got shattered by a rookie bowling attack. It would have been a move criticized by many but in a way, it would have been a smart move as it would have given the batsmen the time to get a feel of the conditions and a chance to bat on a flat deck on the second or third day.
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