I have come across some people who hate MS DHONI..y do dey hate him ..here r d reasons. Well, I give you a very big answer because, since there are so many Dhoni haters, there has to be so many reasons to hate Dhoni ! Here are 5 reasons I think why people hate Dhoni and why they are most probably wrong: Hater’s reason 1: Dhoni plays for the sake of maintaining his batting average. He has a good average just because he stays notout. The fact: The argument of this kind of hater is that a top order batsman hardly stays notout and since Dhoni hardly bats in top 4 slots, obviously he gets to stay notout lot more times and in turn increases his average. I counter this argument by calculating the ‘notoutless’ batting average (i.e, by counting notouts as outs) of a few players and Dhoni as seen below. Now, the expectation is since Dhoni has so many notouts his ‘notoutless’ batting average will be much lower than the top order batsmen because coming in to bat at position 5/6/7, Dhoni hardly gets to bat 10-25 balls in some of his ‘notout’ innings. But, take a look the stats below: (Player : Runs / number of innings = ‘notoutless’ average) Top order batsmen (those who bat mainly in 1, 2, 3 and 4 slots): Jayawardene – 12036/401 = 30.02 Jayasuriya – 13430/433 = 31.02 Inzamam – 11739/350 = 33.54 Sehwag – 8273/245 = 33.76 Dravid – 10889/318 = 34.24 Gilchrist – 9619/279 = 34.48 Sangakkara – 12918/360 = 35.88 Lara – 10405/289 = 36.00 Pietersen – 4369/121 = 36.1 Kallis – 11498/307 = 37.45 Ponting – 13704/365 = 37.54 Ganguly - 11363/300 = 37.88 Middle order batsmen (those who mainly bat in 5, 6 and 7 slots): Klusener – 3576/137 = 26.102 (against 41.1, 89.91) Matthews - 3352/116 = 28.9 (against 40.87 at 85.61) Eoin Morgan - 3635/116 = 31.34 (against 38.26 at 85.73) Misbah - 4609/138 = 33.4 (as against 43.07 at 73.70) Hussey – 5442/157 = 34.66 (against 48.15 at 87.16) Bevan – 6912/196 = 35.25 (against 52.58 at 74.16) Dhoni – 8192/219 = 37.41 (as against 52.85 at 89.28) Conclusion from the above numbers: a. While having a higher ‘notoutless’ average does in no way mean he is a better batsmen than a player with a lower ‘notoutless’ average, it does highlight the contribution of runs scored more than the notouts in the calculation of the normal average. b. Dhoni has batted with an average better than Bevan’s at a strike rate better than Hussey’s c. Dhoni’s high batting average is not just because of the of notouts. It is mainly because of the amount of runs he has scored. In fact, Dhoni is the 4th fastest to reach 8000 runs. Hater’s reason 2: Dhoni is biased in his team selection. He forces the selectors to include his CSK teammates in the Indian team!! But the fact is: Here is a list of players who made their ODI debut after Dhoni became captain RCB – 6 - Praveen Kumar, Kohli, Mithun, Vinay Kumar, Pankaj Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, CSK – 5 - Gony, Badrinath, Tyagi, Vijay, Ashwin KKR – 5 - Ishant, Manoj Tiwary, Dinda, Saha, Shami MI –2 - Rohit Sharma, Abhishek Nayar RR – 4 - Yusuf Pathan, Jadeja, Naman Ojha, Rahane DC/SRH – 2 Pragyan Ojha, Shikhar Dhawan DD – 2 - Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Pune – 2 - Rahul Sharma, Bhuvi From the above stats, it can be concluded that no CSK favoritism has been done by Dhoni in team selection. Also, knowing the amount of oppurtunities Rohit Sharma has been given under his captaincy (rightly so) this allegation is baseless! Note: - the players are listed under the team they were playing when they made their debut and not their current team - I have omitted T20 debuts as India rarely plays T20Is and I assume it is not of much significance here. Also, if T20 debuts are considered, Yuvraj, Gambhir, Uthappa, Munaf, Balaji etc, who actually came into International cricket scene much before Dhoni became captain, will have to be listed. - Test debuts are not considered since no player is selected to test team purely based on T20 performance I believe. Hater’s Reason 3: “Dhoni was the captain of the best Indian team, while Ganguly was the best captain of Indian team”. Dhoni did not build a team, he was given an already settled team from previous captains. Dhoni is not a good captain. He is just a LUCKY captain. The fact: As far as the “he was given an already settled team from previous captains“ line of thinking goes, yes, the Test team was more or less settled. The same cannot be said of the ODI team though. When Dhoni took over captaincy, · Sehwag and Harbhajan were still dropped, not in great form and not in the ODI team. · After a horrible WC, Tendulkar and Dravid were not in prime form. · For around 30% of the matches captained by him, Zaheer or Sachin were either injured or rested, meaning the team missing its main bowler and batsman. · Ganguly and Dravid were dropped from Odi side only few ODIs after Dhoni took charge. Hence, he had the task of leading a largely inexperienced side and build a new title winning team – which he did. He hardly had a stable ODI team to start off with. As far “Dhoni was the captain of the best Indian team, while Ganguly was the best captain of Indian team” statement goes, just because a statement sounds good, it need not be true. Take a look at the stats of some of the common players in test cricket under both Ganguly and Dhoni’s captaincy: Under Ganguly’s captaincy 2000-2005 Tendulkar –3768 runs (42 tests), average 62.80, 100s - 11 Dravid - 4912 runs (49 tests), average 73.31, 100s - 14 Laxman - 2984 runs (43 tests), average 52.35, 100s – 6 Ganguly – 2561 runs (49 tests), average 37.66, 100s – 5 Under Dhoni’s captaincy 2008 onwards Tendulkar - 4139 runs (53 tests), average – 49.86, 100s - 12 Dravid - 3237 runs (43 tests), average – 45.59, 100s- 11 Laxman - 2846 runs (41 tests), average – 48.24, 100s- 4 Dhoni - 3422 runs (58 tests), average – 40.73, 100s- 5 This shows that Sachin, Dravid, and Laxman were at their peak during 2000-2005.Hence, Dhoni was not the captain of the best Indian Team, but Dada was! (Here “Dhoni’s team” refers to the team that went on to become No 1 in test cricket. Not the current test team, which is no where comparable to the team comprising the above legends. MSD has nurtured Kohli, Bhuvi, Rohit, Ashwin, Raina & many more and built the current ODI team.) Hater’s reason 4: Dhoni did not play well in a single match in WC 2011 except final and played well in Final just to hog limelight. So, Dhoni is given too much credit for winning the 2011 WC. Dhoni was selfish in promoting himself in the final. But the fact is: As far as “did not play well in a single match except final” allegation goeas, apart from the final match in WC 2011, · Against England, Dhoni scored 31 off 25 balls in a crucial 40 ball 69 run partnership with Yuvraj to take the score from 236 to 305 · Against WI, he scored 22 off 30. · Against Ireland, 34 off 50 balls after India were 100-4 in a 67 run partnership with Yuvraj. · Had a 52 run unbeaten partnership with Yuvraj against the Dutch. · 25 off 41 vs Pak after India lost Yuvraj and Kohli quickly. Overall in WC 2011, he scored 241 runs at 48.2 average and strike rate 81.2. A person who knows the importance of partnerships would not say “Dhoni dint play a single match well except the final one”. As for “Dhoni is given too much credit for winning the 2011 WC” allegation, apart from his batting and wicket keeping contributions, here is what Dhoni did captaincy wise at the WC: 1. Unconventional instinctive field placements: Ex: have a look at field placement in Haddin’s dismissal in quarters. 2. Precise team selection: Ex: Raina replacing Pathan since the last game in group stages reversed the streak of embarassing lower middle order batting collapses that had happenned during matches against Eng and RSA. 3. Instinctive bowling changes: Ex: Using Zak judiciously and Ashwin opening bowling against Aussies. Considering that he was a 3-in-1 player (batsman, wicketkeeper, captain) the credit given to him is justified and not overhyped. Hater’s reason 5: Dhoni was against the seniors in the team. Dhoni is responsible for Ganguly and Dravid getting dropped from ODI team in 2007, and a few other players getting dropped. My take on this: This reason, I feel, is the main contributor to the Dhoni Haters Club. Because of this particular reason many Dada, Dravid, Sehwag, Bhajji fans became Dhoni haters. Haters say Dhoni forced his senior team-mates to retire from Cricket!! (as if Dhoni is a big daddy of those legends and he can force them to do whatever he wants). I am no team insider to know things that might have transpired within the dressing room, but here is my take on this: I don’t think dhoni was against seniors because: · When Dravid was out of form in 2007/08 scoring 751 runs in 30 innings at 26.81, it was Dhoni always backed Dravid in many press conferences when Dravid’s place was questioned. · Dhoni handed over the captaincy to Ganguly after the fall of 9th Aussie wicket in Ganguly’s last test match as a token of respect for his contribution as captain. · Yes. Ganguly and Dravid were dropped from ODI side after Dhoni became captain. But after WC 2007 debacle, it was one of the strict measures taken and the result of it is out there for everyone to see: India have won WC 2011 and Champions Trophy 2013 with many team members who were groomed by Dhoni. Hence it can be concluded that Dhoni was not personally against the seniors in the team and all the team selection related decisions were taken keeping in mind the best interests of the team. P.S. I am a Dhoni fan (which you will have come to know if you have read thus far!), RCB fan, Dada fan and a Team India fan and never a hater of any cricketer.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 06:48:56 +0000