Dhoni needs to settle down............

I was seeing a close up of Dhoni in one of the dailies today, & what caught my attention of the captain of India was a hint of worry.........a hint tension in the eyes. The stubble & the sidelocks also showed up a few grey strands, obviously an outcome of the enormous pressure he is in right now. India under him were clear favourites to bring back the T20 trophy from England, but the team had been humbled out in the Super Eight level, losing all the three matches. Media had been at loggerheads with him recently & this performance only got more tongues wagging against him. Indian Captaincy has always been a crown full of thorns & extremely difficult to sustain. With his batting also letting him down, since IPL days, MSD is showing visible signs of sleepless nights. Fans all over the world are seeing him in various advts on the TV, but are dying to see his breathless batting, which seems to have deserted him as of now.

The team is now headed for the Caribeans for a 4 match ODI series, where they would be under tremendous pressure to perform. The Windies are currently in the T20 semis, & if they manage to do any better, they would be on a high on their home grounds, making life miserable for MSD & his bunch of men in blue. The team has five changes from the last ODI sqaud that had toured the Kiwis. Suresh Raina & Virender Sehwag have been left out due to niggling injuries, while Irfan Pathan & Munaf Patel have been left out on poor performances. Sachin Tendulkar has also been rested keeping in mind the heavy schedule of cricket ahead. In their place, RP Singh & Ashish Nehra come in as the bowling options. Badrinath & Murali Vijay come in as the batsmen & Abhishek Nayar comes in as the allrounder. While RP & Nehra certainly deserve this call to play for the country, one is a bit surprised to see Badrinath & Vijay getting a chance. Both have not done anything significant in recent times, including the IPL. Abhishek Nayar of course is a good inclusion, as he can lend depth in the middle order. He has been outstanding in domestic cricket as well as IPL of late.

Dhoni would need to shrug off the indifferent form both with the bat & with Captaincy asap, if team India has to perform well ahead. He has worked hard along with Coach Gary Kirsten to build this outfit. Its time to realise that with success there woould also be failures......one has to learn & move on. Take on the new challenges with vigour....

We wish Dhoni & his men in blue all the best ahead. May they brng more laurels for us.