MS Dhoni opens up on review of his leadership

Skipper MS Dhoni, who has won several prestigious silverwares, continues to be at helm as India struggle with their performance in the shorter formats.

While a captain gets all the accolades for a team’s superlative shows, he also gets the flak when results begin to dry up. India might be the new No.1 side in the ICC Test rankings, but in limited-overs cricket, they haven’t been at their best. India so far have lost all the three matches against a comparatively weaker Australian side, i.e. they have lost the series.

Skipper MS Dhoni, who has won several prestigious silverwares, continues to be at helm as India struggle with their performance in the shorter formats. Criticisms have flared but post India’s defeat in the third ODI against Australia at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Dhoni saw the lighter side of it and said that a review of his leadership can only be done through a PIL (Public Interest Litigation). ALSO READ: Twitterati hail MS Dhoni’s overall display against Australia at Melbourne

“There will be a conflict of interest if I start reviewing my performance. We would have to put a PIL to judge my performance as the skipper,” Dhoni said (as reported by PTI) jokingly at the post match press conference.

Dhoni went to dismiss  the point that leadership is an issue here and put emphasis on areas where India lacked.

He further added, “It is not about the leader. I am captain at the moment and somebody else will come later. It is more important to see the areas we are lacking, the departments which have to improve when it comes to shorter formats. READ: Pick of the tweets: Australia vs India, 3rd ODI at Melbourne

We don’t have a seaming all rounder so let’s not even go to that topic. If you see this series it is a relatively inexperienced bowling line-up. Ishant Sharma has played a lot of international cricket but he is not someone who has been consistently part of the format.

Umesh Yadav has been on and off and there are others who have made their debuts here. So we have to assess right now is how good the individuals are and what are they doing and what’s their rate of development.”

Dhoni praised the batting efforts of the side and especially lauded his vice-captain Virat Kohli’s century and went on to criticise the fielding. Under Dhoni, India, who entered the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 as defending champions, played very good cricket till semi-final, before losing to Australia. Prior to that India failed to make it to the final of the tri-series in Australia. Even after the World Cup, India’s poor show under Dhoni in ODIs continued. They lost to 1-2 to Bangladesh, 2-3 against South Africa at home and now another loss here in Australia.