dhoni, the captain, has every trophy in his cupboard that can make any captain envious...
in one day cricket he is undisputed king and one of the most valuable batsman...
but when it comes to tests... the doubts start to creep in... with his keeping... and batting...
dhoni wicket keeping of late is almost everything that has made kamran akmal the butt of all jokes...
he is not going for catches... fumbling with regular takes... standing some steps back only to gift himself some much needed time... and before you jump on me that in english conditions keeper requires bit of time to cover for late movement... you obviously missed the west indies series...
it screws our slip cordon is one side-effect...
dhoni collecting ball below knee is a regular feature... as is ball dissecting him and first slip with him stuck on his feet...
india could have still afforded his keeping services given his batting was as stable as is expected of wicket keeper batsman... but here dhoni is regressing fast to say the least...
when india plays at full strength... the batting line up of viru, gambhir, dravid, sachin, vvs, raina/yuvi/che precede him... followed by a lower order crisis man harbhajan singh... who has played more match winning/turning innings than dhoni for quite a while...
one can clearly see the class in batting line up... and invariably at least two out of first six batsmen clicks for india big time and we manage to score a decent total if not outright winning total to give our bowlers a chance to force result... so dhoni not scoring on consistent basis goes un-noticed... india winning more matches than it loses also glosses over dhoni poor form with bat...
so when team india loses (like in this series with england)... or plays understrength team that requires dhoni to step up as batsman... he gets exposed...
a lot of dhoni being the next gilchrist is based on his odi career... while in tests he is yet to prove his credentials with reasonable consistency...
he was and never will be a technically sound test batsman... his play is based on percentage cricket... so when there is slightest movement in that percentage towards bowler... he obviously finds it difficult...
even gilchrist was not technically accomplished batsman... a lot of his batting was hand eye coordination... but what differentiated him with dhoni is... he trusted his instincts...
if a batting line up of viru, gambhir, dravid, sachinn, vvs, raina/yuvi/che, dhoni followed by bhajji cannot make dhoni confident enough to go for shots... be the player he promised... be the player he can be... wonder what will...
in one day cricket he is undisputed king and one of the most valuable batsman...
but when it comes to tests... the doubts start to creep in... with his keeping... and batting...
dhoni wicket keeping of late is almost everything that has made kamran akmal the butt of all jokes...
he is not going for catches... fumbling with regular takes... standing some steps back only to gift himself some much needed time... and before you jump on me that in english conditions keeper requires bit of time to cover for late movement... you obviously missed the west indies series...
it screws our slip cordon is one side-effect...
dhoni collecting ball below knee is a regular feature... as is ball dissecting him and first slip with him stuck on his feet...
india could have still afforded his keeping services given his batting was as stable as is expected of wicket keeper batsman... but here dhoni is regressing fast to say the least...
when india plays at full strength... the batting line up of viru, gambhir, dravid, sachin, vvs, raina/yuvi/che precede him... followed by a lower order crisis man harbhajan singh... who has played more match winning/turning innings than dhoni for quite a while...
one can clearly see the class in batting line up... and invariably at least two out of first six batsmen clicks for india big time and we manage to score a decent total if not outright winning total to give our bowlers a chance to force result... so dhoni not scoring on consistent basis goes un-noticed... india winning more matches than it loses also glosses over dhoni poor form with bat...
so when team india loses (like in this series with england)... or plays understrength team that requires dhoni to step up as batsman... he gets exposed...
a lot of dhoni being the next gilchrist is based on his odi career... while in tests he is yet to prove his credentials with reasonable consistency...
he was and never will be a technically sound test batsman... his play is based on percentage cricket... so when there is slightest movement in that percentage towards bowler... he obviously finds it difficult...
even gilchrist was not technically accomplished batsman... a lot of his batting was hand eye coordination... but what differentiated him with dhoni is... he trusted his instincts...
if a batting line up of viru, gambhir, dravid, sachinn, vvs, raina/yuvi/che, dhoni followed by bhajji cannot make dhoni confident enough to go for shots... be the player he promised... be the player he can be... wonder what will...
8 comments:
God of Small Things?
india's mike bearley...? :)
It's one of the few things that remind us that he is still a mortal! But I'm surprised just why his ODI and T20 success doesn't rub onto his test career. Maybe because Test cricket demands more than the others?
did you say t20 success...? get his t20 numbers checked and surprise yourself... :)
Dhoni has changed his natural batting style and has thus messed up his batting big time.
huh! as if his keeping improving day by day... :)
Maybe Dhoni has got complacent after winning so many trophies? He looked a far better keeper than Prior in 07 but now Prior looks better of the two. Dhoni got runs at Edgbaston but the match was already over when he did well in the second innings.
I will choose Wriddhaman Saha instead of Dhoni in Tests. Saha is better than Dhoni in Tests
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