TINA

I will clarify the title of this post before wild theories start emerging. TINA is an acronym for There Is No Alternative. I have often thought about it during election time when all the candidates are not worthy to be voted for but you have no choice but to choose the best among the worst. This time during the General Elections, voters will have a NOTA (None Of The Above) button available but sadly those votes will only be omitted from counting. Even if NOTA votes are a majority, the candidate having most number of votes will still win. There is definitely some more tweaking required in terms of NOTA.

This post though is about (surprise, surprise) Indian Cricket. More specifically about the possible future captain of the Indian Cricket Team. It is in that context that TINA becomes completely applicable. You cannot use NOTA as an option because you must always have a captain and in cricket, unlike most games, he is extremely vital. As I write this, India have just lost another series abroad and that makes it 4 series and 12 matches without winning abroad. As always after a series defeat, the knives are out. The vultures have started swooping. MS Dhoni's captaincy is on the line and for once I agree that it is not entirely wrong.

MS Dhoni has always been a defensive captain. Every captain has a particular style, which in my opinion is a combination of the captain's personality and the quality of the team. Some are ridiculously aggressive like Michael Clarke who I think might be the most aggressive captain in the history of the game. Some are conservative like Alastair Cook. Dhoni's style and method is like that of a python rather than a Cobra. He doesn't make a lethal strike but believes in slowly crushing the opponent by cutting off their supply of runs. It works fantastically in ODIs where slowing the run rate causes batsmen to throw their wicket. It also works great in Test matches at home where an in-out field along with a turning pitch and confident spinners is a potent combination. However it doesn't work in Test matches abroad at all. One of the main reason is a lack of a quality bowling attack. This contributes greatly to Dhoni's style of captaincy.

Much as I hate to admit it, I don't think that MS Dhoni should continue as India's test captain in the long term. He is definitely not the only reason why we have not won the last 12 matches abroad but the defensive tactics are not helping. Obviously it's not possible for him to be Michael Clarke because Clarke has the luxury of having 3 extremely good fast bowlers with 1 of them being in the form of his life (Wait till India goes down under :P). But cutting the losses is not helping. We're not only losing matches but also not winning some which we ought to. With a more aggressive captain we might continue to lose but we will also win some matches abroad which will give confidence to the team.

Now comes the TINA problem. Who will be the captain if not MS Dhoni? Let us look at the choices:-

Virat Kohli - The best batsman in world today tied with ABD. Good captaincy experience with Under-19, RCB and Delhi. Definitely the most likely successor but do we really want to put him under pressure so soon? Knowing his temper, the chances are high that Ishant Sharma will come under a barrage of abuses, verbal as well as physical. It will be much better to wait for Virat to mature a bit and let the batting order settle down before making him the captain. Plus it will be good for him to start with a home season as captain rather than away in England and Australia so that he gains some confidence rather than being scarred immediately.

Cheteshwar Pujara - Very good batting form currently but doesn't have much captaincy experience.

Rohit Sharma - Good captaincy experience with the Mumbai Indians but is a long way from absolutely cementing his position in the batting order unlike Kohli and Pujara. Telling him to lead the side right now will definitely be unfair.

R. Ashwin - Seems like an intelligent cricketer but has no captaincy experience and is not sure of his place outside of India just yet.

Let's not even go into the fast bowlers. With injury and form you don't know if they will play the next series let alone captain the team.

Hence the ideal solution right now is to let Mahi continue as the captain in his own unique way. Let him weather the storm in England, Australia and lead us into the World Cup. Once we're at that stage, Virat will be more mature and Rohit will most probably have cemented his place in the team or begun another comeback. Either way we can have one of them as the captain. Or maybe in England and Australia we will see an aggressive Dhoni, Ishant of 2006, rejuvenated Zaheer and hence we won't need the discussion again :)