There are 2 points that I want to make in this article .
London and Las Vegas seldom match . In Cricket , as in any other sport , gameplan and tactics are inherent but there should be a master plan to any tactics. Otherwise it is not risk-taking, but gambling.
Its a fashion in Indian cricket following, we have to have somebody to criticise and hang to the sword. In ODIs till this day it were Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag and Dravid, Ganguly in past. Kumble, Fab Four in Tests adding Kumble. So in T20s it has to be the captain.
During the IPL and today in the warmup match against New Zealand, we saw M S Dhoni promote himself up the order to No. 3. His record has been inconsistent. Sometimes it has worked and at other times, like today, it hasn’t. This has happened quite a few times that I get a feeling that Dhoni is being too clever instead of thinking strategically and long-term. A loss in inconsequential warm up game to T20 world cup ended the honeymoon for MS. A man who before IPL could do nothing wrong, now stands in a witness box to answer the critics why he promoted himself to # 3. Man to man basis, he is a better batsman than the regular # 3 in T20s -- Raina boy. So what if he had been failure yesterday? All this talk wouldnt have arose if he had scored runs and hadnt got out to the awkward stumping to Vettori boy and McCullum uncle.
Basically, the problem with Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s tactics on a given day is not whether it succeeds or fails on that given day. Every tactic is a risk. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes, winning can be “in spite of” something rather than “because of” something.
Here are the questions that we should ask about Dhoni’s promoting himself to #3:
1. What was Dhoni’s intention for promoting himself? He came in at 42/1 after 5 overs with India chasing 170. India was not in any particular difficulty as they were up with the required run rate. Did Dhoni come as a pinch-hitter or did he come to shepherd the team to victory?
2. If he did come to play an anchor role, why could that role not be performed by Raina, Jadeja, or Yuvraj? Shouldn’t Dhoni’s role as captain be to empower his teammates instead of trying to spoon-feed them and corner all the glory?
3. The way Dhoni played (6 off 4, a boundary off the second ball) meant that he came in to attack the bowling (although that may seem redundant in Twenty20). If so, why do so with India well-placed? Secondly, why not send someone expendable like Harbhajan Singh who can hit a few?
4. Is Dhoni always going to come in at #3? Or is he going to keep everyone guessing when he is going to come in?
I am not against Dhoni batting at any position permanently. I am not even against him for changing the batting order as needed. What I am against is changing it in an ad-hoc fashion with no rhyme or reason.
This is what the random shuffling does to the Indian team. It sends a message to the team members that they cannot adjust to the different conditions on the field as needed. It lowers their confidence and destroys their sense of responsibility because why should they worry about leading the team to victory if Captain Dhoni can step in? When the match situation is ambiguous, the batsmen may be confused what to do. The next time India is 40/1, should they slog or milk the bowling? If Dhoni doesn’t promote himself then and the team loses, would that be a mistake?
The real time for tinkering with convention is when the status quo is risky. Remember the World Cup T20 semifinal match against Australia two years ago. Dhoni decided to bowl out his more experienced bowlers and let Joginder Sharma bowl the last over. Hayden was blazing away and had to be stopped. To stick to the bowling order would have been crazy and Dhoni rightly shuffled his bowlers to perfection. In contrast, what he is doing now with the batting order is silly and superfluous.
Lets look up to the match with Pakistan tomorrow and see how these points are taken care
