Dhoni should be India's captain till Kohli regains his touch, says former cricketers

20 August, 2014

It was just a few months ago, where Virat Kohli was flying high and was seen as Dhoni's successor when the need arose. Ironically, it is at this hour where team India needs a new leader and Virat is nowhere in the picture due to his dismal form of late. The player was even compared to Sachin Tendulkar, but his scores of 1, 8, 25, 0, 39, 28, 0, 7, 6 and 20 reflect a different story.

The captaincy debate has come to the forefront after India's pathetic performance against England, where India lost 3-1. Fans and experts alike are putting their blame across Duncan Fletcher and MS Dhoni for the debacle, primarily. Though, with BCCI appointing Ravi Shastri as 'Team Director,' one can assume that Fletcher is getting closer to the exit door.

But, Dhoni on the other hand still holds the prestigious position as skipper of the Indian team, in spite of his failures. ''His track record on foreign soil has been very disappointing,'' said Karsan Ghavri, former Indian cricketer. What must have saved Dhoni from being ripped of the captaincy is the lack of players from the current crop to lead team India.

''As of now, we do not have any choice for India's captaincy. One had though that Kohli would be the next captain for India, but he is struggling with the bat. It is not the right time to hand over the captaincy to Virat,'' said Karsan Ghavri. Kohli is under lot of pressure, as he has been criticised for his failings in England, when the nation was dependent on him to put up a brave fight.

But, this has also brought to the limelight that there is no other Indian player who is fit enough to lead the team from the front in Test matches. Ajit Wadekar said, ''We do not have any captain in reserve to takeover, certainly not from the present lot of players.''

There was a time in Indian cricket, which would comprise of a team, which had four to five captains. Remember the times of Dravid, Ganguly, Sachin, Dhoni etc, when there were plenty of players who could take over the captainship, if required, as they had the much needed experience, even if it may be only temporarily. But, the present Indian team is devoid of experience.

Talking about experience, Madhav Apte, another former Indian cricketer said, ''When Dhoni was given the job of captaining the Indian side, he also did not have much experience with him.'' He further added, ''At one point of time, Kohli was seen as a successor of MS Dhoni, but he is undergoing a bad phase.''

But, Apte still sees Kohli as the next Indian captain, as he has full faith in the player that he will start scoring runs soon. He said, ''Form is temporary, Class is permanent.''