Dhoni's decisions key to Indian success

Suresh Menon writes in DNA that MS Dhoni should put aside personal feelings and choose teams that will serve the country best.

The captain who built up a reputation for clear thinking under pressure and a positive approach now plays safety-first. This, added to the lack of fire while fielding, gives the team a slightly rudderless look when things are going against them.

This, more than anything else is the attitude they will have to overcome, and quickly. And hence Dhoni’s crucial role.

Decisions that originate in cricketing logic can go wrong too, but at least the skipper will have the satisfaction of knowing he did the right thing.

Had Harbhajan bowled the last over against South Africa to the left-hander Peterson, India might still have lost. But at least that would have been the right thing to do.

In the weekly magazine Open, Akshay Sawai provides snapshots of the mannerisms of MS Dhoni at his World Cup press conferences so far.

Win or lose, his tone is even. He almost always wears the India cap, dolphin grey or swimming pool blue, bearing the No. 157 (He is the 157th player to represent India in ODIs). Pressed at the back of the cap is likely to be an inverted pair of sunglasses. He sits leaning forward, with hands in his lap. He uses his left hand to explain things and sometimes rocks in the chair. While listening to the question, he looks at the journalist and gently nods his head. The captain of India is also prone to using car analogies when talking about players. It is said Dhoni prefers minimal interaction with journalists. But when he makes himself available, he does justice to the date. He is articulate, reasonably frank about the team’s weaknesses (fielding, for example) and gives technical insights that inform.