It's not okay for Dhoni to fail: Ajit Agarkar

It’s not okay for Dhoni to fail: Ajit Agarkar: Former Indian pacer Ajit Agarkar has raised question marks over Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s place in the side and has asked the selectors to inspect and analyze Dhoni’s place in the team, leave alone his captaincy.

Agarkar said that the selectors should look at Virat Kohli’s performance as Test captain by comparison, and take a call on Dhoni’s role in the limited overs format after the ongoing South Africa series.

India lost the T20I series to South Africa in quite an embarrassing fashion and many are skeptical of Dhoni’s leadership skills with Agarkar being no exception.

Speaking to ESPNcricinfo ahead of India’s ODI series against South Africa, Agarkar said: “The selectors need to have a closer look at what MS Dhoni is doing, not just as captain, but as a player as well”.

He sounded more worried about Dhoni’s deteriorating batting performances, “He has been a great player for India, but you don’t want him to become a liability for the team. And he needs to perform a lot better than he has [been]. Just because he has done it over the years, doesn’t mean it’s okay for him to fail.”

Agarkar was also unsure if Dhoni batting at no.4 was the right decision. “I’m not convinced he should bat at four,” Agarkar said. “Just after a World Cup, you’re now trying to develop your team for the next World Cup. Four years is a long time, but for Dhoni, towards the end of his career, to put himself up, I’m not sure about it. You can understand if there are batsmen who can’t bat 3 and 4. But there is Ajinkya Rahane, who has been one of your best players in Test cricket and I don’t think he can bat lower than four in ODIs yet, unless he changes his game over his career.”

“Dhoni seems to have lost that ability of going out there and smashing it from ball one. He obviously takes his time. But he batted up the order in Bangladesh, and India still lost the series. All his career when people wanted him to bat up because he is so good and has that destructive ability, he has always maintained that he wants and needs to bat at No.6, where he can handle the pressure.” he said.

Agarkar who analyses the game as a cricket expert post retirement further added that, “It’s a hard job batting at 5, 6 and 7. I’ve seen Yuvraj and MS himself do it for so long, but that doesn’t mean that it changes at this stage in his career. You’ve got to have guys who are good at certain numbers. And at the moment MS by promoting himself, is getting a Rahane or anyone else who bats there, into trouble. I would still have Raina and Dhoni at 5 and 6, so contrary to what a lot of people have said, I don’t think Dhoni should be batting at four at this stage in his career.”

Agarkar said that the selectors might have some big decisions to take at the end of the ODI series regarding the future of the Indian team in limited overs cricket.

“The selectors maybe need to look at where the Indian team is heading because Virat Kohli has done well as captain in Test cricket so maybe the selectors need to make that call after this series,” Agarkar said.

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