Australia v India 2014: MS Dhoni’s captaincy in deepening hole, writes Ron Reed

MS DHONI is handsomely paid for what he does and who he is and is hugely popular because he has been successful. But the wheels are wobbling.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - DECEMBER 26: MS Dhoni of India leads Ishant Sharma and his teammates onto the field during day one of the Third Test match between Australia and India at Melbourne Cricket Ground on December 26, 2014 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

AS Richie Benaud has always said, cricket captains might as well take the credit when things go well because they will surely wear the blame when they don’t.

By the time Australia were dismissed for a runaway 530, India’s Mahendra Singh Dhoni needed no reminding of that truism after a disappointing couple of sessions in which his fortunes and those of his opposite number Steve Smith were in stark contrast.

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Smith, eight years younger and 88 Test matches shy in leadership experience, had the MCG in raptures as his fairytale first fortnight in the chair produced another Midas touch and pretty much guaranteed India will not win.

Dhoni not only had no answer to it — he and his bowlers failed utterly to cut Smith off at the pass by the approved method, removing the tailenders — but his tactics prompted former Australian captain Ian Chappell to say on TV he had never seen worse Test captaincy.

That included Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf managing to lose after leading by 206 on the first innings in a truly unbelievable match in Sydney five years ago. That bad, huh?

MS Dhoni took back the leadership from stand-in skipper Virat Kohli in the second Test.

You didn’t need a master’s degree in the mysteries and subtleties of the ancient game to see where Chappell was coming from as Dhoni peppered Brad Haddin with short balls, telegraphing them with obvious field placings and playing the vice-captain back into form.

Left a bowler short — selection is his responsibility, surely — he simply rotated his three pacemen despite them looking less likely to break through than they had in a spirited effort on day one, and ignored his spinner, Ravi Ashwin, for 90 minutes.

For the second time since Dhoni took back the leadership from stand-in Virat Kohli in Brisbane, the last five wickets more than doubled Australia’s score.

As Smith neared 200, Dhoni was so bereft of ideas he had no fieldsmen within 50 metres, illegal in short-form cricket.

Dhoni, 33, is handsomely paid for what he does and who he is — the one-time railway ticket inspector earns about $3.5 million — and is hugely popular because he has been successful.

He has won 27 and lost 18 of 59 Tests in charge, led India to the No. 1 ranking briefly in 2009 as well as winning the World Cup and the T20 championship, and as Test captain has averaged about 40 and scored five of his six hundreds.

It’s an impressive record — but the wheels are wobbling.

Since winning six Tests in a row against Australia and West Indies at home, the last 10 — all away, in South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia — have produced only one win and six defeats.

MS Dhoni took four catches and a stumping. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

Three successive heavy defeats in England followed an ugly altercation between his player Ravindra Jadeja and James Anderson and in Brisbane he admitted to unrest in the dressing room, which some Indian media have interpreted as a thinly-disguised undermining of Kohli, whose leadership in Adelaide was more impressive than anything Dhoni has demonstrated since.

He and his team have been under fire for complaining about food, practice wickets and umpiring decisions as they prepare to hand back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Smith has gleefully observed there has been no need to unsettle the opposition: “They’re doing it all for us.”

At least Dhoni took four catches and a stumping, the latter his 38th, equalling Syed Kirmani’s Indian record.

But he is going to have to find more than that if he is to climb out of a deepening hole.

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Twitter: @Reedrw