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Dhoni retires from Test Cricket

Cabinet96

Hall of Fame Member
Wow, huge. Timing makes enough sense. You want to embed Kohli before the next away tours, even though Dhoni is in the best XI at home. Similar to the Dravid retirement three years ago in that respect.
 

cnerd123

likes this
This is a really good move.

Waited for Kohli to be ready. Waited for the away season to be done so that the Kohli wouldn't have to bear the burden of leading through all these losses overseas (although one could argue that he might have done a bit better tactically). He has nothing left to offer with the bat and is becoming a liability with the gloves. The team is stronger without him. Series is lost, last match is a dead rubber. His father in law is in deep legal trouble and is on his way down. Perfect time to step down.

He'll probably step down from ODIs after having a final crack at this WC too.
 

duffer

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
27-18-15 is a good record. Imagine it would have looked insanely good pre-2011.
 

cnerd123

likes this
Yea, he took us up to Number 1, scored some valuable runs at 7, and generally has been a good keeper.

He seemed to lose his way captaincy wise once Zak broke down. He still led pretty well in India IMO, but his captaincy was crazy defensive and very unorthodox overseas where the bowling attack was just plain awful . And the home series against England where they just couldn't get through Cook and KP. In a way you can feel sympathetic for him, given the bowling resources he had, but you are also lead to believe he couldn't coax the best out of them, and that maybe his instinctive yet conservative style just wasn't suited to Test match cricket.

He has been a fantastic captain in ODIs though.
 

GotSpin

Hall of Fame Member
Because I enjoy India losing this is bad news for me. But on the other hand, I like the captain of a test team to kind of, I don't know, give a ****.
 

Scaly piscine

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Because I enjoy India losing this is bad news for me. But on the other hand, I like the captain of a test team to kind of, I don't know, give a ****.
If they keep losing whilst giving a **** and whilst having the biggest **** as captain then it's all good.

They'll probably pick up the odd win though with said captain.
 

GotSpin

Hall of Fame Member
The difference being that I really question whether Dhoni cared to be playing test cricket.

For sure we know is that Kholi wants to be out there and winning.

Anyway, I've never cared much for Dhoni. Can appreciate he has been a somewhat above average cricketer but his press conferences, his match interviews, his protectionist views on the IPL, sucking the BCCI off whenever he can and his general attitude towards test cricket has made him a very dislikeable figure in my honest opinion.
 

OverratedSanity

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That was always my biggest beef with Dhoni. His awful tactics and inability to realize vital moments in the game where you need to turn the screw were infuriating but probably forgivable. But the way we went series after series after series losing repeatedly with him not getting angry enough really made me hate him. A better leader would have let rip at his team after some of those performances, yet Dhoni always seemed pretty calm no matter what and kept finding excuses for the defeats instead of truly manning up and saying the team wasn't good enough at all.

One of the main reasons why we weren't able to turn around our overseas efforts, apart from not being good enough, was because you never felt as though the team was hurting from those defeats. They just seemed to shrug and move on. That's one thing that can hopefully change, and can change pretty much immediately under a new leader who gets pissed at his teammates.
 
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Antihippy

International Debutant
It's not like kohli was a tactical revelation in his first test.

If anything if the first test shows that he can do some downright daft stuff, like the around the wicket stuff.
 

Swingpanzee

International Regular
Tbh I wouldn't say that Kohli becoming the captain will change everything and India will be back to winning ways overnight. The eternal inability to take 20 wickets is still ever present. However, India will have one better batsmen though, so that is a plus for them.

Never thought I'd say it, but I'll miss watching Dhoni nick off to slips. Ah well, at least Dhawan's still playing.
 

GotSpin

Hall of Fame Member
It's not like kohli was a tactical revelation in his first test.

If anything if the first test shows that he can do some downright daft stuff, like the around the wicket stuff.
Yeah for sure. But atleast he will be bring a different attitude.
 

Swingpanzee

International Regular
It's not like kohli was a tactical revelation in his first test.

If anything if the first test shows that he can do some downright daft stuff, like the around the wicket stuff.
Haha posted the same opinion. I think Kohli brings out the aggressive image though which sort of satisfies people, whereas Dhoni's ever-calm approach is kinda frustrating when you're getting whackamoled in a test?
 

Swingpanzee

International Regular
Yeah for sure. But atleast he will be bring a different attitude.
They will sledge, yes, and be aggressive but from what I saw in the first test India were just as hopeless and lackadaisical on the field in the first dig (they were reasonably lively in the second innings). It's just one test match and he is very young so he deserves confidence. Besides beating India in Sydney with him as captain makes it all the more enjoyable a prospect.
 

GotSpin

Hall of Fame Member
They will sledge, yes, and be aggressive but from what I saw in the first test India were just as hopeless and lackadaisical on the field in the first dig (they were reasonably lively in the second innings). It's just one test match and he is very young so he deserves confidence. Besides beating India in Sydney with him as captain makes it all the more enjoyable a prospect.
Yes I too will enjoy winning in Sydney against Kholi.

My main problem with Dhoni is what I said before. He just came across as not caring about test cricket and gave terrible press conferences that foretold of little to no improvement.

To be clear, I don't think Kholi is some sort of tactical genius who will take India to great heights overnight - (Sure hope not) - But atleast he clearly wants to be out there in the test arena rather than some bloke who would rather hit the buffet after keeping for 20 overs.
 

dogwalker

U19 Captain
Ponting was definitely better at looking like a hybrid of an Alvin and the Chipmunks cast-off and a California Raisin, I'll give him that.
 

Arachnodouche

International Captain
Bad timing IMO. He could've played out the last Test before the WC. This undermines his ODI captaincy in some ways now that we have a formal acknowledgment that Kohli will be captain in all formats very soon. But I've never been a fan of different captains for different formats in the first place.
 

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