If the leadership of Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has to be analyzed then filing a PIL is the only option, and this is said by Dhoni himself when he was addressing the press conference after losing the third ODI to Australia.
Australia has taken an undefeatable lead in 5 match ODI series after winning the third ODI by 3 wickets in Melbourne, on Sunday.
Dhoni said this on a funny note, “There will be a conflict of interest if I start reviewing my performance. We would have to put a PIL to judge my performance as the skipper.”
However, he said this in a serious tone, “It is not about the leader. I am captain at the moment and somebody else will come later. It is more important to see the areas we are lacking, the departments which have to improve when it comes to shorter formats.”
He further added, “We don’t have a seaming all-rounder so let’s not even go to that topic. If you see this series it is a relatively inexperienced bowling lineup. Ishant Sharma has played a lot of international cricket but he is not someone who has been consistently part of the format. Umesh Yadav has been on and off and there are others who have made their debuts here. So we have to assess right now is how good the individuals are and what are they doing and what’s their rate of development.”
Dhoni praised Virat Kohli who played a superb knock of 117 in the third ODI. In his words, “He has consistently performed and improved his performance. He is the best amongst the Indian batsmen, along with Rohit in the shorter format. Today the way he paced his innings, it was slightly different to the first two games. But he reads the game really well, which I think, is very important in the middle overs. Virat is somebody that we’ll have to look up to in the future because he’s somebody who will take the team forward for a long time. He (Kohli) is one youngster who has developed really well. I still remember the days when he was part of the side, at first, then he was dropped and then he came back in. It was in the Sri Lanka series I remember, and he opened for us and then he batted lower down for us.”
He further talked about Virat, “I always felt he was a top-order batsman and once he got the chance he grabbed that opportunity. Nobody even talks about anyone else at that slot which I feel is the good part.”