Should Dhoni be replaced as captain?

Any cheap self-help paperback will tell you that seizing the moment is imperative to success. That when you have the opposition in a corner, the ideal progression is to shove them mercilessly further into the crevice. MS Dhoni, however, doesn’t realise this. Or maybe he has reached a stage where he realises that whatever he does – or doesn’t - will detract little from what he has already achieved and earned. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, let it be stated again that Dhoni’s unimaginative captaincy was as instrumental to India’s latest sordid overseas chapter as were the underperformance of its batsmen and bowlers.

There are several cases against Dhoni: that his defensive fields allow teams off the hook; that he makes the most bizarre of bowling changes; that he, in conjunction with that other ambassador for precaution, coach Duncan Fletcher, is so hell bent on avoiding defeat on foreign shores that the matter of seeking victory becomes almost secondary.
The evidence under scrutiny is not just from New Zealand. Dhoni was deplorably cautionary in his leadership during white-washes in England and Australia in 2011. More recently, a defeat that cost a series against South Africa may well have been avoided had the skipper not delayed opting for the new ball by 66 overs at Durban. A few days ago, at Wellington, he deprived his fast bowlers of slips, but readily stationed one for part-timer Rohit Sharma, a move that had Sunil Gavaskar frothing at the mouth on commentary.

His deployment of a regular deep point and the swapping acts he carried out with Virat Kohli between bowling and wicket-keeping duties also come under fire across sections of India’s hyperventilating media. Containment as opposed to attack – even when rival teams are floundering – seems to be his preferred mode of operation. That India are still the world’s No.2 Test team despite losing 10 of their last 12 overseas Tests makes one laugh at the ICC rankings system. But is it time for a change to India’s Test leadership?