Dhoni's leadership will face stern test - Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly, the former India captain, has said MS Dhoni's leadership will face a stern test in the next couple of years if the younger members of the team continue to underperform and the senior players retire.

While Ganguly acknowledged India's form in Tests had been good, the inconsistency in the shorter formats, he said, was a worry. India won the Asia Cup recently but were beaten in the final of the subsequent tri-series in Sri Lanka. They failed to make the semi-finals of the World Twenty20 and Champions Trophy in 2009, as well as the World Twenty20 in 2010.

"Dhoni's biggest challenge will be in the coming one or two years when [Sachin] Tendulkar, [Rahul] Dravid and [VVS] Laxman retire," Ganguly told PTI. "Next year, we have about five away series and it will be a test of his captaincy and his players. His future as Indian captain will be determined.

"Yuvraj Singh has a lot of ups and downs despite playing for so long. Virender Sehwag too is inconsistent when it comes to one-dayers, while the youngsters Ravindra Jadeja, Yusuf Pathan and Rohit Sharma are short of expectations," Ganguly said. "They [the youngsters] were termed as the future, but they are yet to perform at the highest level and blossom. There has been a big gap as we are not getting the combination right."

During Ganguly's tenure as captain, India began to taste success overseas with more frequency, registering Test wins in West Indies and England after many years and winning a series in Pakistan for the first time. "Those were the performances that mattered the most for us. Performance is 40% captaincy and 60% player's contribution," Ganguly said.

Ganguly also said that age should not be the deciding factor when picking a player. "It's Sachin Tendulkar who is still your best, while for the Aussies it's Ricky Ponting who is still taking the team through. And, remember Laxman's contribution in saving the series in Sri Lanka."