What's all this talk about Dhoni vs Gambhir?

irst things first, the IPL has left a big void in the Indian cricket fan’s life. I’ll be honest – after the IPL, there’s pretty much nothing to do after 8 pm and this article is probably the result of that nothingness.

The IPL 5 final was a closely contested one that went down to the last over

IPL 2012 was a hugely successful tournament judging by the excitement and enthusiasm it generated among fans throughout the past two months. I understand that the TV ratings have a different story to tell but who’s interested in them anyway. TV ratings are just meant to keep the statisticians busy and generate, if you like, an employment of some kind. I would like to congratulate the Kolkata Knight Riders on their maiden IPL title. A special mention to man of the match in the final – Manvinder Bisla who, in my opinion, played the best innings of his career. Being an ardent Gautam Gambhir fan, I can feel the pride the whole of Kolkata and Bengal is feeling at the moment. The cricket gurus, the media are all lauding the way Gambhir led KKR throughout the tournament and I am in complete agreement.

But there is one talk doing the rounds with which I tend to disagree – the talk of Gambhir vs Dhoni in terms of captaincy. While many feel Dhoni is still the best bet as captain for the Indian ODI and T20 teams, the same contingent thinks that a change of leadership (read: Gambhir) is required at the test level. Really? And judging by what? Gambhir’s captaincy in the shortest format? Now, I find that hilarious. Taking nothing away, not even a bit, from Gambhir’s leadership skills, my point here is that captaining a domestic team and the national team is like, as Charles Dickens would have put it had he written this, a tale of two captains. The case I make here is not whether Gambhir can be a successful captain or not, in fact, that is not even being discussed. But what has Dhoni done wrong to be carped like this?

Dhoni has captained the national side in all formats for quite some time now and the overall record suggests that he has done a more than decent job. Not that Gambhir hasn’t led India, in fact, he boasts of a 100% record in the 6 ODIs he’s captained. But with such big names in the side, the stars of Indian cricket, egos are bound to clash sometimes and this is where I think Dhoni has handled the team pretty well. Handing over the reins to Gambhir might just unsettle things a bit. I say that for a number of reasons. Firstly, as I said, Dhoni has, apart from the 8-0 drubbing, done a pretty decent job up till now. It’s safe to say this because the team will remain, more or less, the same in the future. Sanjay Manjrekar had recently tweeted that Dhoni’s captaincy was one of the many reasons for the 4-0 scoreline in England and Australia but certainly not among the top 3 reasons. So there you have it – what we need to criticize are the players’ performances not just the captain.

MSD is a proven leader on the international stage

Secondly, the old school thought might still hold true as far as Indian cricket is concerned – once you are no longer captain, it’s hard to retain your place in the side. To counter that, I think Dhoni is still the best bet as the attacking wicket-keeper batsman we need in our side and will retain his place despite losing the captaincy. Of course, the script changes if he himself decides to quit Test cricket, as he has hinted in the past. The other traditional ideology in Indian cricket is that if you are captain, your game is bound to suffer. Again, Dhoni’s game, over the years, hasn’t changed much. He still can fly those helicopters. The recently concluded IPL is proof of that. He has performed the role of a finisher quite brilliantly in the past. So if people think he has slowed down a bit, it’s not because he can’t hit them anymore, it’s only because more often than not, the situation demands a level-headed approach. A supporting stem to this argument would be that all his high scores have come when he has batted up the order, not lower down. Critics can argue here that Gautam Gambhir’s game also hasn’t suffered much whenever he has been in charge. But can we be sure about this? He hasn’t been the captain long enough for us to know.

Coming towards the end of the article, I am sure you must have forgotten that I am a fervid Gauti fan and to add to that, not so much a Dhoni fan. But I sincerely feel that Gambhir would be best suited as Dhoni’s deputy. That would be the best way forward. People often joke that the Indian cricket fan has a short term memory – he cannot remember beyond the recently concluded series. And such nugatory Gauti vs Dhoni arguments absolutely justify that.

As far as Indian cricket is concerned, there are genuine issues to be addressed, for example, who is going to fill in the big boots of Rahul Dravid?

I’ll leave that discussion for some other day.