Dhoni to be axed as ODI/T20 captain : Sehwag in as frontrunner

[SaiSrini]

He's had a six-year honeymoon since his international debut in 2004, been hailed as 'Captain Cool' and led India to the inaugural T20 World Cup title and the No 1 ranking in Tests. But Mahendra Singh Dhoni may be about to suffer the first major setback of his career.

With India failing to win a single Super 8 match in two straight T20 World Cups, there is talk of replacing Dhoni with Virender Sehwag as captain in both one-dayers and T20.

Dhoni may go as T20, ODI captain, Times of India

This is horrendous. His failures in T20 format makes it easy for the selectors to sack him as ODI captain. And replace him with someone who doesnt want the captaincy burden. This will put Indian cricket backwards in two ways - it will give the reins to the wrong guy, and two it could seriously affect Sehwag's batting which is crucial for us in ODI's and test matches. We know what happens when someone who doesnt want to be in charge is given the charge (our Master blaster would know it better!).

And for god's sake, the 50 OVER WORLD CUP IS JUST 7-8 MONTHS AWAY! A new ODI captain at this time is absolutely unnecessary (maybe even very bad for us). Dhoni has to lead India at the 2011 World Cup. God save Indian cricket.

 

[aussie1st]

How about Test? If you are going to sack him from ODI and T20I then surely it'll be the same for Test.

From what I've seen Dhoni has done a good job with the team, seems to get them to perform although not so much in the T20 WC but still hes done a good job for mine.

 

[SaiSrini]

How about Test? If you are going to sack him from ODI and T20I then surely it'll be the same for Test.

From what I've seen Dhoni has done a good job with the team, seems to get them to perform although not so much in the T20 WC but still hes done a good job for mine.

It says he will be retained as test captain since India are No. 1 in the ICC test rankings. But still as you said, he has got the team together and has made them perform bar the T20 World Cups in the last two years. Maybe thats more due to the fact that teams are evolving more wiser in the T20 format and India are as usual lagging behind in getting up to the required speed. In ODI's and tests, he has been excellent for India

He has backed a few players quite staunchly (like RP Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuvraj Singh, etc) but which Indian captain has not done that? Ganguly backed quite a few players very staunchly and so did Dravid, Azharuddin, etc.

 

[aussie1st]

Sounds silly to me, if he deemed good enough to be retained as Test captain then they still see him as a good captain. Now unless hes going to be sacked as a player from the ODI and T20I side then there is no reason why he shouldn't be captain of those sides. Plus I don't get why hes been sacked as captain from ODI, its not like India are going badly in that. They just scored a 400 against SA plus I believe the only ODI series loss they have had recently is against us.

 

[Dare]

Being the captain in all 3 formats of the game is hard and so is being the full time wicketkeeper while being the captain.
Its a move to ease the pressure of Dhoni but I'm not sure its the best one. I would have sacked him as 20/20 captain and made someone like Raina or Yuvraj captain. I also would have made him a specialist batsman in 20/20s and given the gloves to someone else like KKD just to take some extra pressure of Dhoni.
Being the captain of Indian team is hard enough on its own, add on to that the pressures of batting/keeping and playing in all 3 formats. It would affect anyone's game.

 

[Varun]

Sacking Dhoni won't do any good to BCCI. They're just trying to hide their mistakes.

 

[Akash00]

No one can replace Dhoni as captain. He might have failed in the West Indies but he did great for CSK in the IPL and the main reason for that (CSK) success was because every player co-operated with him, but the current Indian team is utterly indisciplined. TBH, players like Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan should be sacked !!! They are the most experienced players in the squad and still can't perform.

 

[sohum]

Balls.

 

[stormyjitesh]

Isn't s'kara captaining & wicketkeeping simultaneously well?
Haven't aussies sacked ponting as t20 captain?
Now,why can't we apply these things in indian cricket??
The loss in 2-3 tournaments doesn't matter as india have lost finals after finals under ganguly's rein.The main thing is that this team is not willing to learn from its own mistakes & since dhoni has been instrumental in the team success as has been said,he s'd also take the responsibility of these losses.According to me he's not a t20 batsman anymore,if his batting against srilanka is observed closely & mind you,batting in ipl on batsman friendly pitches s'd not b a yardstick.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

To be honest, I don't believe this news.

MSD has done nothing worth being sacked, his own performances have been decent, and there isn't much he can do if the players at his disposal have flawed techniques, have poor fitness and aren't in good form.

Sehwag is a poor choice, Viru doesn't need the pressure. I don't know how it would effect him, if it would at all, but it isn't worth the risk. He's in great form and we need him at his peak in order to constantly be one of the best in the world.

Raina is too young, barely has secured his spot in the Test side. He's captaining in Zim, that's fine, but don't give him the job for ODIs against full nations.

Yuvi is a poor skipper, even Kings XI Punjab dropped him.

The only person who I think is suitable to take over is Gambhir. And seeing how he had such a poor tournament and has newly-found flaws against the short ball he needs to work on, it might not be the best timing.

 

[Aditya]

Sacking Dhoni as captain will be a bad decision from BCCI. He has been captaining the side well in odi’s. As far as t20 is concern we can't blame Dhoni for it. Indian side is full of players who are injured and unfit for international cricket. I was going through an article on cricinfo and Kirsten has said that even he is fitter at the age of 42 then some of the Indian players. That shows that even coach is unhappy with the teams selection so what would BCCI do then? Sack Kirsten as well? Sacking Dhoni as captain won't do anything. We need a change in the team selection panel. There are so many good young players consistently performing in domestic cricket but they never get chance to play for India. If Kartik is not able to play big innings then give Parthiv Patel a chance. Maybe he will perform and if not then there are few other wicket keeper batsman in Indian domestic circuit give them a chance. Why Dinesh Kartik again and again, maybe because he is from south?

Sehwag as captain would not be good for India. I am not questioning Sehwag as a player he is a good player but as far as captaincy is concern sorry he will fail in it. He has mentioned in the past that he does not want to captain any side so why to bother him and give captaincy job to him? Yuvraj as captain will be a fail as well. Selection committee should rather convince Sachin for captaincy. I know Sachin has not been successful as captain for India but still if we see his captaincy in these years IPL, He captained Mumbai Indians very well. He played so many match winning innings for his side and took them through the finals. So In my opinion don't make Sehwag or Yuvraj captain ask or rather convince Sachin for captaincy.

 

[LongLegs?]

To be honest, I don't believe this news.

MSD has done nothing worth being sacked, his own performances have been decent, and there isn't much he can do if the players at his disposal have flawed techniques, have poor fitness and aren't in good form.

Sehwag is a poor choice, Viru doesn't need the pressure. I don't know how it would effect him, if it would at all, but it isn't worth the risk. He's in great form and we need him at his peak in order to constantly be one of the best in the world.

Raina is too young, barely has secured his spot in the Test side. He's captaining in Zim, that's fine, but don't give him the job for ODIs against full nations.

Yuvi is a poor skipper, even Kings XI Punjab dropped him.

The only person who I think is suitable to take over is Gambhir. And seeing how he had such a poor tournament and has newly-found flaws against the short ball he needs to work on, it might not be the best timing.

Raina is usually clueless when he gets captaincy in domestic cricket. I don't support that decision at all. Virat Kohli should've been captain - has captained the U-19s to a World Cup win and has captained Delhi in the absence of Gambhir and Sehwag. Clearly a better candidate. I guess you could argue that Raina's spot in the team is more safe than Kohli's, but Kohli has done pretty well so far for India.

 

[Aditya]

I would agree with Reeve. Kohli is a much better captain then Suresh Raina. He has captained Delhi side very well in the absence of Sehwag and Gambhir. I am not able to understand why Kohli is vice captain and Raina captain?

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Kohli as captain though...not yet. He's too new, and like you said, he hasn't nailed down his spot in the side. Raina isn't in the Test side, but he is a regular in ODIs and T20s.

Kohli's a good choice down the line though, no harm grooming him soon.

 

[khalek]

Appointing Sehwag would be a terrible decision, Raina would be a much better option if Dhoni is to be sacked cause he feels confident about his game now and is performing in almost every single game. If that happens, he should be drafted in the test side as well to replace UV. At his age, he's done so well in ODIs so far and imo he's proved enough. The short-ball thing shouldn't be a problem, in tests he can leave them alone and play safely.