That's not a problem until he gets selected in the test team as a batsman only ...Dhoni is most certainly far from a convincing case as a Test batsman.
No it's not. He averages 24 this year from six tests.Yea, don't go by his present average, it's only going one way north.
I'm still to be convinced he's a better Test batsman than Karthik, and given Karthik is at least as good a wicketkeeper, that would mean that if Dhoni wasn't such a massive star (though obviously that's mainly important for ODIs) there'd be a case for questioning how much of a Test future he has.That's not a problem until he gets selected in the test team as a batsman only ...
Kartik has deteriorated both as keep and bat. His keeping was ultra shoddy in Sri Lanka and he dropped at least 3 or 4 catches and was replaced by P Patel. Dhoni has improved his keeping immensely, and the proof of this is that he has hardly been in news for keeping badly. Yep, no news is good news as far as keeping goes.I'm still to be convinced he's a better Test batsman than Karthik, and given Karthik is at least as good a wicketkeeper, that would mean that if Dhoni wasn't such a massive star (though obviously that's mainly important for ODIs) there'd be a case for questioning how much of a Test future he has.
Well I did wonder, being replaced by Patel is never exactly encouraging. Patel in his previous stint had to be one of the worst wicketkeepers of those who apparently were supposed to be good (ie, excluding the likes of Deep Dasgupta) that I've ever seen.Kartik has deteriorated both as keep and bat. His keeping was ultra shoddy in Sri Lanka and he dropped at least 3 or 4 catches and was replaced by P Patel.
That sounds well and good on paper, but it doesn't often work on the park. You have to play the ball on its merits. Fact is the likes of Clark and, last summer, Lee, don't offer you many scoring shots and if you try to manufacture them you'll likely not last long. You can only score when the bowler offers you the chance.As far as his batting goes, he had tough time in Australia, but i would suggest him playing his natural game rather than adopt the ODI game in tests.
India has enough batting at the moment that they can easily let a Dhoni, who is not at all comfortable against the moving ball, to be the keeper.Gloves: Dhoni>Karthik
Batting: Karthik>Dhoni
Also, Karthik's so badly out of form with both bat and gloves it's not even funny.Agreed, I'm for keeping Dhoni regardless of his batting.
Regardless, if he averages nine over four innings and shells catches repeatedly every time he's recalled it's not going to do his case much good.Only because he is out of the team when he shouldn't of been.