Dhoni’s dismal record overseas, Is it time to move on?

In MS Dhoni’s tenure as captain of the Indian cricket team, he has seen many heights and his array of accomplishments has been long but there have been low points too, none more pronounced than the two consecutive 4-0 losses in test cricket to England and then Australia in 2011. Ironically, this happened right after the world cup which India won. Till then, India was doing really well in test cricket under Dhoni who had already propelled them to No.1 in the ICC rankings, where they stayed for a year and a half. This success did not just include drubbings at home, it also included wins abroad for a period of time. But, since 2011, as we know, India have been termed as poor travelers in test cricket. The two clean sweeps overseas brought Dhoni’s position as India’s captain under the scanner for the first time, with many ex-players believing that he did not have the temperament of a test match captain, after all he has won just 3 out of the 18 test matches played outside the subcontinent during his tenure. Moreover, having lost to South Africa recently, questions marks are again being raised on his ability to steer this young Indian side to victory on foreign soil in the coming months. So, is the situation that critical at the moment?
Starting with the tour of the proteas, very few would say that India played badly as the youngsters showed some real guts in the bouncy tracks almost snatching a victory in the first match. It was just that they were beaten by a superior team in their own conditions and also this tour brought in some really good performances for the youngsters and overall many would say, Dhoni did pretty well as the captain. Moving on, we shouldn’t forget that he is India’s most successful test captain now 26 wins and just 13 losses from 51 matches, which is pretty good by our standards. But, a captain is as good as his team and I think the same was proved in 2011, when India lost those 2 series. The reason for this is that, I believe India was going through a transition phase at that point of time, with Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman reaching the twilight of their careers and hence were not able to perform as was expected of them but because of what they have done for Indian cricket, Dhoni stuck with them although he had other talented youngsters at this disposal.  So, when the seniors moved on, Dhoni took no time to start forming a team with youngsters, backing their abilities, being more vocal with his captaincy, talking to the players more during a match, which was reflected in a 4-0 win over Australia at home. So, that 1-2 year transition period had to hurt India anyways, as was the case with Australia who went through a similar phase and hence Dhoni should not be the one to be blamed for the away losses. More importantly, he has managed to form a somewhat settled team now, with youngsters performing really well, although the bowling attack still needs some work to do.
Taking into account what Gavaskar said recently, that no team is touring well these days apart from South Africa, it says a lot about the competitiveness of cricket at the moment and hence beating a side in their own den is never an easy job. Therefore, we should back this young and talented side to do well on the tours of New Zealand, England and Australia coming ahead and break the overseas jinx of the last couple of years. More importantly, we should back the man, who is in charge of it, as he has been the most successful captain in the history of Indian cricket, under whom they have already graced the No.1 position once in tests.