Mumbai: Former Test cricketers on Tuesday expressed surprise at Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s decision to quit the longer format of the game with immediate effect with one more match to go in the four-game series against Australia.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said that Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s retirement news was as surprising to him as to anybody and he never expected the ‘Captain Cool’ to quit Tests altogether.
“The decision comes as a huge surprise. Though it is not sudden. I was expecting him to step down from captaincy after the Sydney match but did not think he will retire as a player. I still think that he had 2 or 3 more years of cricket left in him,” Gavaskar told NDTV.
Gavaskar said the pressure of captaincy can sometimes get too much.
“In a captain’s life sometimes the burden gets too heavy. This Test match (Melbourne game) was like that. There are times when you try everything and nothing works. And probably that time had come for Dhoni,” he said.
On reacting to Dhoni’s post-match comment of allowing this team some more time and the series a “learning curve” for many a young player, Gavaskar said it was a case of pure excuse.
“This is like a student who is failing in Standard I for long. Unable to move into Standard II. It’s been a long long learning curve for the team. Especially the bowlers. We have had enough patience with the bowlers.
“The batsman no doubt have done well. And if the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, keep going the way they are going, India will certainly do well.”
Meanwhile, former cricketers Chandu Borde, Ajit Wadekar said the decision was understandable, especially with the country not doing well overseas under Dhoni’s leadership over the last few years.
“To me it was a real surprise. I thought he will play for one or two more years in Test cricket as he’s a very fit person,” said former captain and ex-chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar.
“It came as a surprise, didn’t it, that he quit midstream. It (decision to quit) could have been taken earlier. But perhaps he thought it was the right time to hand over the mantle to the next man,” Borde said to PTI here.
“I think he has quit in the larger interest of the game,” Borde added.
Wadekar too felt Dhoni could have waited till the end of the series before announcing the decision.
“The decision was extraordinary. I feel he should have waited till the end of the series (after January 6-10, 2015 fourth Test at Sydney). He has already missed the first Test (at Adelaide because of a prior injury),” Wadekar said.
But the former India skipper, who had to quit as captain as well as player in 1974 after his side was humiliated 0-3 in England, said Dhoni’s record as Test captain of late has dipped in overseas conditions.
“His performance as captain overseas in Test cricket has not been good,” remarked 73-year-old Wadekar.
Vengsarkar, while conceding Dhoni’s captaincy record overseas has been “average”, pointed out that he just did not have a bowling attack capable of dismissing rival teams twice away from home.
“His overall record overseas has been average, but India does not have the bowling attack to take 20 wickets in overseas conditions,” the 116-Test veteran said.
While Vengsarkar felt that Virat Kohli, who led the team in the opening Test at Adelaide, would cool down with time, the other two former players felt the Delhi batsman should temper down his behaviour.
“Kohli is young and in my opinion the best batsman in world cricket now. He will cool down with passage of time. He has a different body language, like Dhoni,” said Vengsarkar.
Spin great Erapalli Prasanna said Dhoni’s retirement from Tests came as a surprise because usually captains hang their shoes at the end of a series but he did it before the final Test in Sydney.
“It came as a surprise to me. Usually captains hang their boots after a series,” he said.
Prasanna said Dhoni should have announced his retirement after the Sydney Test as that way he could have guided Virat Kohli in the final match of the series.” (PTI)