Should India have separate captains?

[bharat297]

We've seen England adopt the strategy of having 3 different captains for 3 different forms of the game. Similarly, Australia have White and Clarke. There have been suggestions by some commentators that Dhoni's success as an ODI captain is actually hindering him in Tests. In limited overs cricket the key is knowing when to defend and restrict a team and knowing when to attack. Over the past year, I can think of several occassions where Dhoni in Tests has been too quick to spread the field and take the pressure off the batsmen. Sometimes it helps to have a captain who can just worry about his form of the game, and will do everything to ensure that his side does well in the form of the game that he is leading. My 2 questions are: 1) Is it worth India adopting a separate captain for Tests? 2) If so, who? To me the answer to question 1 is yes and for question 2, I think the only suitable replacement at this point in time is Gautam Gambhir. He strikes me as a hard-worker and a gritty player, and hopefully that toughness will rub-off on the Indian team.

[saneindian]

The decision on test captain can wait as there are no series on the horizon. The ideal thing would be to let GG be the skipper of the t20 team first. Let him lead the team for the next few months and through to the t20 WC. We do not play any tests for the foreseeable future (9-10 months) after this test anyways. In that time GG can be the leader in t20s and other ODI series which MSD does not want to play. That way he would be much better prepared to take over from MSD come the England series in November. Also get a feeling, like we had Kumble going out in between a test series to hand over the test captaincy to MSD, Eng series at home could see history repeat itself.

[bharat297]

I think they host Pakistan in 3 tests in March or April. This is according to the international tours programme. http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/DOWNLOAD/0000/0045/ftp_2011_2020.pdf The biggest advantage I see in having separate captains is that the captain can take responsibility for the teams success / failure in that mode. Dhoni was chosen as a T20 captain first, then based on that, he was chosen as an ODI captain, and then subsequently as a Test captain. I'm not so sure that's the right way to go about it, because the forms of the game are so different, that I don't think a good ODI captain necessarily makes a good Test captain, or vice versa.

[BeautifulGame]

^ That Pakistan series is canceled. As for OP i agree its time to have seperate captains for Tests and ODIs.But i am not sure who should be test captain. I dont really like Gambhir's captaincy from what i have seen of him.Zaheer would be preferable if he can remain fit but cant see any other options tbh

[asterix]

For a country like India, you can only gain 'respect' if you are leading the team successfully in limited overs games.. I would suggest either GG or Viru to take over the T20/ODI captaincy and let Dhoni to make his own winning team in Test matches by replacing the OTH (over the hill) players with young players.. SUccess in T20/ODIs will help GG/Viru to gain confidence and then in future take over from Dhoni..

[BERGKAMP]

Test captain - Tendulkar (with Dhoni kicked out of the team altogether) ODIs - Dhoni T20s - Dhoni

[BeautifulGame]

Test captain - Tendulkar (with Dhoni kicked out of the team altogether) ODIs - Dhoni T20s - Dhoni

Dhoni is the second best performing wk in international cricket behind prior.Has done better than any keeper we ever had in tests home or away. He averages above 30 away from subcontinent in last 3 yearswhich is great for a wicket keeper that too in a struggling team.So why exactly would u drop from the team?

[adi B]

Test captain - sehwag (with Dhoni kicked out of the team altogether) ODIs - Dhoni T20s - fatraj(with dhoni kicked out of the team)

fixed nobody in tests, who is close to dhoni type thinking nd clone should be made captain

[adi B]

Dhoni is the second best performing wk in international cricket behind prior.Has done better than any keeper we ever had in tests home or away. He averages above 30 away from subcontinent in last 3 yearswhich is great for a wicket keeper that too in a struggling team.So why exactly would u drop from the team?

u know what, i have seen a lot of thread with people rightly criticising dhoni, but of all the people, only u come up with bizare thoughts nd defend him like hell nd never accept his fault or how bad he is doing something fishy heh?:ohmy:

[BeautifulGame]

u know what, i have seen a lot of thread with people rightly criticising dhoni, but of all the people, only u come up with bizare thoughts nd defend him like hell nd never accept his fault or how bad he is doing something fishy heh?:ohmy:

Common sense perhaps? And if u flick through my comments u will find me criticizing Dhoni few times too.So not sure where u came up that either.

fixed nobody in tests, who is close to dhoni type thinking nd clone should be made captain

Now can u answer me this? U want Dhoni dropped from the team and Sehwag made Captain. Dhoni averages 10 runs more than Sehwag in our last fours away from sub continent.And he is a wk batsmen. Sehwag is the 2nd worst batsmen in International cricket (not just India) in last 3 years away from sub continent.So how do u even justify a place for Sehwag in the team let alone be captain.

[zep1706]

I would love to see somebody taking over the test captaincy, Dhoni is fine in LOIs, but sadly I don't see any alternative.