Dhoni a terrible Test Captain?

• I have compiled some data about Dhoni as a Test Player and I have also suggested a thought about the Test captaincy. I would be glad if someone finds this useful this.I have posted this to see what some of the Yahoo users have to say(type) on this. So I have been saying this right from Day one that Dhoni is not a Test player.He simply sucks as a Test player.His Test average is only 37.75 and this year his average has been below 30 i read in the morning newspaper. His glove work is mediocre to say the least(during the series in England he was wicket-keeping like a Junior college keeper!) Dhoni has not scored a single Test century out of the sub-continent,No test hundreds in England,New Zealand,Australia,West Indies or South africa,that just shows you that he can only score on the flat indian wickets as far as Test cricket is concerned. And Dhoni just doesn't have the technique to play in Tests.His unorthodox shots just cannot work at the Test level. His footwork is not great either. And i agree with you Dhoni got all the damn credit for India becoming no.1 Test team,all the good work was done by Sourav,Dravid,Kumble and due the the efficient coaching of John Wright and Gary kirsten. During India's no.1 reign Dhoni did absolutely nothing substantial whatsoever during those 20 months,all the time Only Sehwag,Laxman,Dravid,Tendulkar,Zaheer,Ha… singh and to an extent Gambhir contributed to India becoming no.1 team. I'm not a Dhoni hater or something, i'm a great fan of Dhoni as an ODI Player because he is one of the Best finishers in the limited overs cricket.In ODI cricket he can pound the bowlers and does good keeping too,So i think he should stick to ODI's only. Now the argument comes who will captain the TEST team? I say pick any guy up as the captain who is responsible enough,No use appointing Seniors(like Sachin,Rahul,Sehwag,Laxman and Zaheer)the captaincy because they have only limited years left. India should think about a long term plan,I say give the captaincy to someone like Ashwin,I know it will be a great gamble but wasn't appointing Dhoni the captain during the inaugural ICC T20 A gamble too? You will never know the quality and calibre of a person until he is tried.So the argument that no one can captain in place of Dhoni is completely fallacious. There was this essay about David Hartman i had read,who was blind but he wanted to be a doctor,when he mentions this to his father the desire of becoming a doctor,his father told him,"You won't know unless you try" and he tried and became a doctor,that's my point; Unless a new person is not tried out how will we know if he's good enough or not,We cannot and must not presume that if dhoni vacates the test captaincy no one will be good enough for the job.Even Tiger Pataudi was only 21 when he became the captain of India and many senior pros didn't like this. During MAK pataudi's time India were utter minnows, But he went on to become India's first ever successful Test captain. So my proposition is,If Dhoni fails at captaincy during this tour and India end up loosing the Test series like they did in England,Then i think it's high time that India should appoint a new Test Captain for the next Test series against whichever country. And as far as the best Test captain is concerned for india,That man is Sourav ganguly, hands-down.

• Answer:

  India became no. 1 test side under Dhoni - there's no arguing about it but there are some facts which needs to be considered why India became no. 1. 1. India played back to back test series in home conditions and all of us know they are good at home. 2. India rose to the no. 1 ranking on the back of their batting greats. 3. They mostly played weaker teams or teams in transition during that period. 4. They were never tested in tougher conditions during that period. So, the real test came when India Toured England after the World Cup and we all know what happened. That was India's first real test after becoming no. 1 and they failed miserably on the first hurdle. Even if they had avoided the defeat by 2 test margins they would have retained the no. 1 spot. But they could not and lost all four tests. Their main strength, batting is also on the slide. Only Rahul Dravid performed in England and its to be seen what will be the result in Australia. If the batsmans fail again it would be even worse. Although their bowling is better in Australia now than it was in England, its never their strength. It was never the bowling efforts that took them to the no. 1 spot. It was their batting that made them successful so if their batsman fail, their team will fail. About Dhoni's Captaincy - it looked good when the team was winning. But it is always tested when the team is not performing. Look at Ricky Ponting, Ponting lead one of the great teams and when they were winning every thing was good. But as soon as the seniors retired Aussies started losing and he lost his job. Michael Clarke seems to be doing ok at the moment. So, India also should look at this example and if Dhoni again fails to deliver the win in Australia, they should move ahead with a fresh leader. I am not saying Dhoni is bad and does not deserve to lead the side, what I am saying is there should always be a new option to lead the team ahead. A fresh leader can take things differently which he might be missing. Just look at the Aussies at the moment.