Sourav once aptly said that Dhoni has got one very important attribute of a good captain - Luck. The more I see Dhoni's captaincy the more I agree with Sourav's assessment*. This is not to take anything away from Dhoni's tactical nous as a captain which in general is good but to reinforce that not everything that works can be attributed to the merits of his captaincy.
How do you categorize Dhoni's decision to play Sreesanth ahead of Ishant in the 11? Retrospectively we might call it a master stroke but prospectively it was anywhere between a stupid decision to a bold gamble. But then the appetite for a gamble is what separates good captains from ordinary ones. Remember the Mark Taylor style of declaration - almost every declaration of his was a bit of a gamble. Its a shame that he was succeeded by Steve Waugh and now the ultra cautious Ponting! As much as I didn't approve of the decision to play Sreesanth in the 11, I was glad to see Dhoni taking these gambles in critical matches rather playing it safe. Like Keynes said, in life its generally better to fail conventionally than succeed unconventionally!
The logical extension of this gamble should lead to Ojha being played ahead of Harbhajan when only one spinner needs to be played - in my opinion its a much lesser gamble given the way Harbhajan has been bowling of late.
* Once Mahela Jayawardene famously said "Its impossible to win a toss against Dhoni"!
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ishant is a better bowler than sree and one cant deny that...sreesanth was proving himself in the domestic circuit before he was picked up in the side..and ishanth seemed lost in the middle frankly..so sreesanths inclusion over ishant seemed more common sensical than fortuitous....form over potential...as far as the toss is concerned u need to give it to dhoni man...but mate over a large sample dhoni should start losing tosses..symmetrical bell shaped normal distribution or in layman terms ..law of averages...
ReplyDeleteWTF! What was Sreesanth proving himself in Domestic Circuit??? Even his selection in the 14 was a pure gamble. Going by domestic form he should have never been in the team in the first place...get ur facts right first.
ReplyDeleteI am saving u the effort to go back and check what Sreesanth has done in domestic circuit recently. Extract from Cricinfo's report on the team selection for the SL series:
ReplyDelete"Sreesanth last played for India in 2008, and had his share of injuries and criticism over attitude in equal measure. During the time he spent out of the Indian team, Sreesanth played 10 first-class games for 28 wickets, including one five-wicket haul for Warwickshire, and 23 overs for no wickets against Andhra in his latest Ranji Trophy match. Clearly his selection is a gamble on promise over form. It is a big - bordering on generous - decision made by the selectors, and an equally big chance for Sreesanth to wash away all the criticism against him."
hmmm....its not often that a guy is picked in the side when he is not really in form....should accept that i made an erroneous assumption...however am pleasantly surprised by your reaction...WTF is neither decent nor civil...more importantly its you who set the rules..
ReplyDeleteThats a good one (for once)!
ReplyDeleteShall refrain from using such words/phrases in future...
As Richie Benaud said "Captaincy is 90 per cent luck and 10 percent skill, but don't try it without that 10 per cent"... This is exactly what Dhoni is doing...
ReplyDelete