Former England cricketer David Lloyd has said that Indian captain
Mahendra Singh Dhoni seems to have run out of luck and these are testing
times for the World Cup-winning skipper.
 Former England cricketer David Lloyd has said that Dhoni seems to have run out of luck and these are testing times for the World Cup-winning skipper. © AFP |
"For three years or more, everything that Mahendra Singh Dhoni
touched turned to gold. These days, everything he tries to touch seems
to end up on the floor. Bit harsh? Perhaps, but these are worrying times
for the man who did the impossible by replacing Sachin Tendulkar as
India's most talked-about cricketer," wrote Lloyd in his column in The Independent.
"At least, one would hope these are worrying times. There have been
occasions this summer -- and, most recently, the Thursday afternoon --
when Dhoni has seemed to accept his team's fall from grace with not much
more than a shrug of the shoulders," he added.
Lloyd said Dhoni and his men's body language has been negative in the
third Test as if another game was up and there was nothing they could
do other than wait for the inevitable.
The former cricketer also said that he was disappointed to see Dhoni not being his usual self.
"As captain, it is up to MS to set the tone - something he has done,
quite brilliantly, on numerous occasions since leading an inexperienced
Indian side to unexpected triumph in the inaugural World Twenty20 of
2007. But so far this series, save for a couple of hours in Birmingham
on Wednesday afternoon, Dhoni has been a huge disappointment," he said.
Lloyd also pointed out that it is Dhoni's wicketkeeping that has
typified Indian team's character, which is either too tired from too
much of cricket or unwilling to fight.
"It is Dhoni's wicketkeeping though, that seems to typify an outfit
that is either tired from too much cricket or unwilling to fight tooth
and nail to protect a title as unsexy -- at least to a majority of
Indian cricket fans -- as that of the world's No 1 Test team.
"If the keeper is sloppy then there's a fair chance the rest of the
fielding will be below par -- and Dhoni has been sloppiness personified
behind the stumps," he said.
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