Cricket Xtra: Dhawan's treatment is negligence from Dhoni

Ajit Vijaykumar 10:22 18/01/2016
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  • Talented all-rounder: Rishi Dhawan.

    When will the excuses and complaints stop? India’s limited overs fortunes show no signs of improvement but instead of owning up to his shortcomings and providing support to the youngsters, Mahendra Singh Dhoni continues to moan like a schoolkid, blaming everyone but himself.

    It is becoming increasingly difficult to respect Dhoni’s leadership skills. He has a lot of credit in the bank after a number of stupendous wins across formats over the years. But with every passing day, he is drawing on it heavily to avoid being in the firing line and sadly, it’s only sullying his image.

    After India lost the second ODI against Australia following yet another Rohit Sharma ton, Dhoni was ready with the reasons that are stopping the Indians from succeeding Down Under. Among them were struggling seamers, batsmen not firing in the death overs and the general lack of balance in the team due to the absence of a reliable seam-bowling all-rounder.

    I have mentioned on numerous occasions that getting the best out of players is an art that eludes Dhoni and he only manages to demoralise those who might have something good to offer. Forget the young pacers or fringe players in the team, Dhoni didn’t even spare Ajinkya Rahane, who scored 89 off 80 balls in the second match, saying that the middle order batsman scores well on true surfaces but he is waiting to see his performances on slow pitches.

    Is Dhoni waiting for Rahane to fail? But this is not the main point here. Dhoni keeps complaining about the paucity of quality all-rounders who can add balance to team. This after having in his squad one of the most consistent all-rounders at the domestic level.

    Rishi Dhawan has played 51 first-class games, scoring 2,165 runs at an average of more than 40 and has 220 wickets to his name. Now he might not be a Jacques Kallis when it comes to technique or even pace, but you don’t need a Ferrari to do your daily chores; a Toyota will do just fine.

    According to Dhoni, it is difficult to play Rishi as it would mean sacrificing a batsman. While we as fans don’t have the ability to match Dhoni’s cricketing talents, some things are clear as daylight and don’t need World Cup trophies in the cabinet to grasp them.

    Spin wasn’t going to work in Australia and Rishi should have been in the side from the start in place of either Jadeja or Ashwin or even one of the seamers. And as feared, in the first two matches, Dhoni’s go-to spinners Ravi Ashwin (2-68 and 0-60) and Ravindra Jadeja (0-61 and 1-50) were easily dealt with.

    Rishi was not given a chance in the first two ODIs and after questioning his ability to bowl well under pressure, Dhoni performed an acrobatic U turn and selected the 25-year-old for the Melbourne ODI. His six overs went for 33 runs in a high scoring game, so what was stopping Dhoni from picking Rishi in the first place?

    This wouldn’t be the first instance of a half-decent player being made to feel pretty much worthless during Dhoni’s tenure. One of the most intriguing cases is that of Rajasthan’s Pankaj Singh.

    A burly player who can bowl fast medium all day and also hit a few lusty blows lower down the order, Pankaj proved his credentials by being one of the most consistent seam bowlers in the country from 2009 to 2014. He has 361 first-class wickets from 90 matches. And all he has to his name are two Tests in England and a solitary ODI.

    He bowled his heart out in the two Tests but luck eluded him. And with that, Pankaj was discarded without being given a proper run against other teams in different formats.

    Similar was the case with Jammu and Kashmir’s Parvez Rasool. The off-spinning all-rounder has a domestic average of close to 40 from 46 games with 115 wickets. But the only international match he got was an ODI against Bangladesh in 2014 under stand-in skipper Suresh Raina. He has gone off the radar too.

    According to Dhoni, India is not producing quality cricketers who can start performing at the international level from the word go. But unless he gives the options in front of him his full backing, how will Dhoni know about their quality?

    By the way, if you want to see what trust in a player looks like, you only need to sift through the record books and go to the 2011 Test between India and England at the Oval. India were trailing 3-0 in the four match series and were desperate for a change in attack.

    They called in left-arm seamer RP Singh, who was holidaying in Miami at the time. RP had helped India win in England in 2007 and it was thought he could do an encore. But he hadn’t played a Test in three years and was woefully unfit when he turned up for the Test. India played him anyway, RP was embarrassing to watch with the ball barely reaching the keeper and India lost by an innings. The captain was Dhoni.

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