Is MS Dhoni fit for Test Cricket

Well, tons of questions are raised when Yuvraj Singh flops in one test match. Last time he scored a duck in the infamous Sydney test and since then has failed to impress the selectors for a permanent spot in the test team. But nobody asks the same question about M.S. Dhoni. Unfortunately, i don’t remember one single make or break innings since his match saving innings in the Lords test against England last summer when we were there under Rahul Dravid’s captaincy. I think time is ripe enough to critically evaluate the role of M.S. Dhoni in the Indian Test Team. Is he a wicket keeper who can bat or a batter who can keep wickets. I don’t think so he has been able to justify even one of the options. He dropped Michael Hussey on 1 and he went to score 146 and when he himself came out to bat, scored mere 9 runs of 51 balls and seemed least interested in batting. Merely being the One day team captain or a T20 captain should not guarantee a place in the test side. It’s just the wrong selection ethic. To be very frank he doesn’t deserve a place in the test team considering that he has completely forgotten why he was hired for. He has hired because he was a good wicket keeper and an aggressive batsman. Now, if he has lost his aggression in the limited overs format of the game, that might well be justified considering that he is the captain of the side, but when it comes to test cricket, we have the brilliance of four batsmen to take the responsibility baton and the fifth fab is our captain. What is his role then in test team. Same for which he was hired. Keep wickets and be an aggressive batsman. But as of now, he is not doing justice to any one of them. I still feel we can stick to Dinesh Karthick for a while till he realizes his own faults, considering the fact that Indian Cricketers realize their faults only after getting dropped for a series or two. And the fate of M.S. Dhoni must be the same if we want the same cricketer back. Unfortunately Gary Kirsten says MSD is ready to lead the test side. I’d rather say he’s not even ready to be the test cricketer as things stand. One might say that it’s too early to predict but then we can not keep risking a spot which literally becomes a free hand for the Ozzies to deal with. They are the toughest side to beat in Test cricket not for the reason that they are tough cricketers, but because we are weak. And our weakness displays in our team selections. Let’s see how the series pans out. I obviously want India to win but I would still be critical of MSD throughout the series for the kind of cricket he is trying to play. If Harbhajan Singh can consistently bat better than Dhoni then probably Dhoni can be demoted to Number 10 in batting even if we do not want to drop him.