Indian test cricket from depths of despair to Bright sunshine from Dhoni to Virat the journey , compare

[MCcricket]

We see a stark difference in the effort, intent , team selection, results , under Dhoni n Virat.What if Dhoni was the Capt, he would've chosen Jadeja over Mishra n no Umesh in the lineup also probably no Pujara , bowler would have been given defensive fields, one slip max, asked to keep it tight n not just going for wkts, after 9 overs Jadeja would've bowled in the first innings, we would've scored about 350 owing to weak team selection n Ashwin would've batted around 8 and would not be Able to contribute much.

We would've never enforced a follow on as per capt Dhoni bowlers are tired n we just have 4 bowlers n our medium pacers are in effective as we don't have a pool , results R not I!porting but process is, lol.

I cannot over emphasize how bad a test captain Dhoni was, the worse I have seen personally , n please we R talking about test cricket so P!ease don't bring in World cup win as if he single handedly won it, Dhoni should have been kicked out as captain 3 years back, n Saha has contributed more then what Dhoni would have in terms of batting n keeping both

[Adi_91]

Disagree with most points made.

 

Has Virat captained the team for a full test series in Eng, Aus, SA or NZ? Let us get there and then we will evaluate how better or worse he is as a captain that MS. 

 

Also, how has Saha contributed more? With the bat, I don't think he has done much. Even with the gloves, he has a long way to go.

[Adi_91]

And to add to my points above, I am not a big MSD fan, but the constant war cry against MSD even after 1.5 years after he resigned makes me feel bad for a man who has also achieved a lot for the team. He took the team to the summit of test cricket and we were there for more than 2 years.

[MCcricket]

1 minute ago, Adi_91 said:

Disagree with most points made.

 

Has Virat captained the team for a full test series in Eng, Aus, SA or NZ? Let us get there and then we will evaluate how better or worse he is as a captain that MS. 

 

Also, how has Saha contributed more? With the bat, I don't think he has done much. Even with the gloves, he has a long way to go.

I am not saying we would have won but we would have done better, Dhoni along with his captaincy sunk himself and his team in a hole because of his negative approach to test cricket which he did not love or have respect or confidence for, and the same useless 5g hacks took 8 wkts in first innings , lol

[Adi_91]

Just now, MCcricket said:

I am not saying we would have won but we would have done better, Dhoni along with his captaincy sunk himself and his team in a hole because of his negative approach to test cricket which he did not love or have respect or confidence for, and the same useless 5g hacks took 8 wkts in first innings , lol

The bowlers are still untested outside the SC under Virat. Again, we need to be patient and there is no better way than letting time reveal how good these "5g hacks" are in SA, Aus, NZ and Eng. That's the real test for these bowlers.

 

I see this constant criticism against MSD even after 19 months to be sickening to be honest. Let's enjoy the win and remember that the real test lies ahead in the nations mentioned above.

[Silva]

I agree that saha is a better test player than dhoni. Makes catches tht dhoni wouldnt even attempt. Even ian gould couldnt help but be star struck by his keeping. 

[Adi_91]

4 minutes ago, Silva said:

I agree that saha is a better test player than dhoni. Makes catches tht dhoni wouldnt even attempt. Even ian gould couldnt help but be star struck by his keeping. 

So did Ian Gould basically take his hat off to salute him? I didn't see that.

[beautifulgame]

How hard is it to make a coherent post ?

[cowboysfan]

Its too early too make these kinds of assertions,let see how they finsh this series and more importantly how they play against the Kiwis and  England.the 5 bowler strategy will surely be tested but i dont think its really needed at home but Virat wont change his mind.

[rkt.india]

1 test win against a lowly WI. Dont start jumping up and down already. Remember how we dominated a far better WI test team in 2011 in all 3 tests, which we could have won 3-0 if not for the two tests affected by rain and still we lost badly against England on the following tour. Winning against WI isnt the right indication of our team's progress.

[MechEng]

Dhoni gave a very passive vibe as a test player, and one of his close friends from his Ranji days also said that he was never interested in tests.

[Texan]

Even Dhoni had started off with a bang before his captaincy became drab, listless and disgraceful. Kohli is still young in his captaincy tenure and so far has shown positive intent, a welcome change from the ultra defensive captaincy of so called captain courageous. 

 

I feel that we have to be very realistic about the shelf life of a captain. Post 2011, Dhoni's captaincy was pathetic and he seemed to have lost interest in it but just kept hanging on to it. Thats also one of the reasons I feel that we need separate captains for separate formats. That will keep all captains fresh in their respective formats and also will keep them all on their toes. 

[fineleg]

We need to wait until Away Series in Aus/Eng/SA/NZ.

However, Kohli is showing more intent than MSD during passages/sessions of a Test match.

MSD had one of the BEST Indian Test team players - Sehwag, SRT, Dravid, Laxman, Zaheer Khan - these are match winners

If Kohli had such players - then he can do a lot better, but he has a MUCH WEAKER indian team. So, good to see him use the resources to best he can.

[MechEng]

Dhoni to me is more like a businessman than a sports player. His instantaneous decision making skills and efficient utilization of resources is a proof of that. No cricketer in the world has had such skills. His calmness played a great role in high pressure situations but it backfired in longer format where one has to shift gears as per situations.

 

Kohli on the other hand does not have calmness and composure of Dhoni, but he has the warrior instincts and emotions which enabled him to make assertive decisions when the team is ahead in a session of a test match.

 

Thinking of a sportsman who can combine Dhoni's calmness and Kohli's aggressive instincts is like asking for a perfect sportsman which is not possible in a real world. All humans are flawed.

[jusarrived]

You know what , move on .. we have seen a lot of success under Dhoni the worst test captain , the worst WK etc ..you can appreciate Virat by not putting down Dhoni in every post .I hope Virat does well , but its still early days ..while every test win is important , I dont think we have done anything out of the ordinary to win against WI . Ishant sharma ran through a much better WI lineup last time we toured here , irrespective of how we bowl WI will continue to gift wickets so lets not g overboard with these wins .  

[velu]

2 hours ago, fineleg said:

We need to wait until Away Series in Aus/Eng/SA/NZ.

However, Kohli is showing more intent than MSD during passages/sessions of a Test match.

MSD had one of the BEST Indian Test team players - Sehwag, SRT, Dravid, Laxman, Zaheer Khan - these are match winners

If Kohli had such players - then he can do a lot better, but he has a MUCH WEAKER indian team. So, good to see him use the resources to best he can.

the same bolded players were also responsible for all our 4-0

markedly results were bit better with new set of batsmen  

[New guy]

2 hours ago, rkt.india said:

1 test win against a lowly WI. Dont start jumping up and down already. Remember how we dominated a far better WI test team in 2011 in all 3 tests, which we could have won 3-0 if not for the two tests affected by rain and still we lost badly against England on the following tour. Winning against WI isnt the right indication of our team's progress.

I think people are more happy about the approach and attitude shown by Virat than the actual results

12 minutes ago, jusarrived said:

You know what , move on .. we have seen a lot of success under Dhoni the worst test captain , the worst WK etc ..you can appreciate Virat by not putting down Dhoni in every post .I hope Virat does well , but its still early days ..while every test win is important , I dont think we have done anything out of the ordinary to win against WI . Ishant sharma ran through a much better WI lineup last time we toured here , irrespective of how we bowl WI will continue to gift wickets so lets not g overboard with these wins .  

The irony! Am I the only one who can see it? Surely not!

[velu]

3 minutes ago, New guy said:

I think people are more happy about the approach and attitude shown by Virat than the actual results

more than the approach results do matter .. sadly most of our fans are obsessed with records and player worshiping stuff 

[express bowling]

17 minutes ago, velu said:

more than the approach results do matter .. sadly most of our fans are obsessed with records and player worshiping stuff 

After becoming test captain full time, Kohli has won both the test series he has captained...one overseas in  Lanka ( 2-1)  and the other at home against the then no.1 test team South Africa ( 3-0) .  We have won the first test in WI too.

 

So, I would say, the results have been very good so far.  he has a long way to go though and it is just a start.

 

What impresses me about Kohli's captaincy in test matches is  his will to win at all costs. 

 

How he will turn out as a test captain in the long run, only time will tell....because there is many a slip between the cup and the lip. But initial signs are positive.

Edited July 25, 2016 by express bowling

[sscomp32]

2 hours ago, MechEng said:

Dhoni gave a very passive vibe as a test player, and one of his close friends from his Ranji days also said that he was never interested in tests.

Yeah. It was in a documentary about MSD on some news channel. MSD was like born for white ball cricket and never really paid attention to longer format.