Ex-captains lay into Dhoni's captaincy

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has come under immense criticism after India lost the Test and ODI series in New Zealand. Having already lost the ODIs by a 4-0 margin, India blew several winning moments in the Test series to eventually lose by a 1-0 margin.

Speaking to different media outlets, former captains Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar felt that despite the low returns and poor showings overseas, it was not the time for a change of guard with the World Cup only 11 months away.

India have now lost 10 of their last 12 Tests abroad - the other two were drawn - a record that included two successive 4-0 whitewashes in England and Australia. As the media trained its guns on Dhoni, former captain Sourav Ganguly said his Test captaincy was 'obnoxious', while Rahul Dravid felt his strategy was too timid to win in the five-day format. Both, however, wanted him to remain Test skipper until next year's 50 over World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, while another ex-captain Sunil Gavaskar stressed that a leader was only as good as his team.

"If the World Cup was not less than a year away, I would have agreed that Dhoni needed to be removed as captain," Ganguly told Headlines Today news channel. "His Test captaincy has been obnoxious. But changing captains now will unsettle the team. His place is not in doubt in Test cricket, but Dhoni needs to set the overseas record right."

Dravid agreed with the perception that Dhoni was a defensive captain, saying he needed to take risks if he wanted to win Test matches abroad. Dhoni was widely derided for his defensive field placements in New Zealand which also followed claims he blew the chance of a rare overseas victory in South Africa in December by failing to go for the jugular. "I think he's got to realize this very quickly, that if he wants to win Test matches abroad, he's got to risk it all," Dravid told ESPNCricinfo.

"He's got to take that chance that he's going to have to lose some Test matches. The only way you can win abroad is to take a few risks, take a few gambles." - 'Shot at redemption' - But Dravid added that Dhoni's leadership in Tests must be assessed after the Test tours of England and Australia that preceded the World Cup Down Under in February-March next year.

"I see these tours as Dhoni's opportunity to redeem what has been a pretty poor overseas record for him as captain," Dravid said. "I think he deserves the right, the chance to play out this year, and assess it at the end of the Australian series. End of that series, we will really know where Indian cricket stands and where Dhoni stands,both as a player and as a captain."

There was some support for Dhoni from Sunil Gavaskar who worked as a television commentator on the New Zealand tour. The former Indian opener rubbished suggestions that it was time to ease the workload on Dhoni, who leads India in all the three formats. "A captain can do very little if you don't have a bowling attack. Generally a captain is only as good as his team," he said to NDTV.

"He is winning handsomely in India and, therefore, it's very difficult to say to him, okay thank you, you won in India, but sorry your overseas record is not good so we are going to change the captain. That kind of thing doesn't work," Gavaskar said.