Holding: Dhoni not innovative enough as skipper

Former West Indies fast bowler and respected commentator Michael Holding has opined that India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni doesn’t have the tactical nous to be a good Test skipper.

Dhoni has often been criticised for not being adventurous with his decisions in Tests, with boring field placements, and safe declarations. Holding feels Dhoni is a good enough ODI skipper, as it’s not a tough format to deal with.

Holding told PTI: “I don’t think ODI captaincy is a problem (with Dhoni) but the longer form of the game is. I don’t think he is innovative and proactive enough in the longer form of the game.

“But captaining in ODIs it is not too difficult. Therefore India can do well under him at the World Cup.

He also went on to say that Dhoni didn’t seem to even like Test cricket, but added that this was not a unique thing, and that many players preferred the shorter formats.

‘Whispering Death’ added: “Why only him (Dhoni), a lot of cricketers prefer playing limited overs cricket. I don’t think a lot of cricketers like playing Test cricket.

“It is not peculiar to him (Dhoni) alone. Money is one main reason and if you can work for short period of time and get more money, eventually you want to do that only.”

When asked about India’s relatively toothless bowling attack, Holding said India had the batting power to negate the lack of wickets at the World Cup, but added that some of India’s pacemen were up to par.

He said: “You don’t have to take a lot of wickets if you get enough runs on the board. I think last time India won the World Cup at home and you saw how they won it. They chased big totals.

“I think Ishant Sharma is a very good bowler. You need your best team for the World Cup and he finds himself in that best team.

“Bhuvneshwar could be another strong bowler if used sparingly. He is not a very strong guy and therefore needs to be doing less work than what he is doing.”