Dhoni to lead Team India against Australia

Sep 18: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has finally appointed Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the skipper and Yuvraj Singh as his deputy of the Indian team, putting all ends to the perplexity looming over Indian cricket relating to captaincy issue for the whole past week after Rahul Dravid’s sudden relinquishment, for the upcoming seven match One-day series against Australia and the series against Pakistan.

The seven-match ODI series is scheduled to start at Kochi on October 2 and concludes October 17 at Mumbai where final ODI will be played.

The selectors met at Mumbai today and picked up a 15-member squad in which Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh make a comeback while Munaf Patel and Ajit Agarkar have been dropped.

Nawab of Najafgarh Virender Sehwag still not be able to get selectors confidence back and couldn’t make the cut in the team. However Chairman selection committee Dilip Vengsarkar clearly said, “Sehwag will get the opportunity.”

It is presumed that the decision to hand over the mantle to Dhoni comes after master blaster Sachin Tendulkar reportedly refused to take charge for the ODI side and that’s when Jharkhand batsman has been zeroed after Tendulkar’s reluctance.

On Sachin’s reluctance for the ODI captaincy, Vengsarkar firmly stated, “We didn’t offer anybody captaincy”, “We considered three-four names but Dhoni is the best choice we have”.

Sachin Tendulkar is not very keen on playing all one-dayers scheduled for Team India. He wants to take suitable breaks between one-dayers to be able to fully recover and prolong his ODI career.

He has admitted recently that his body is unable to recover fast enough, because the gap between matches is too short. Tendulkar, at 34, feels that ODIs is a youngster’s game.

Replying on Dravid’s resignation, BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah categorically said that there was no resignation, as Dravid’s tenure of captaincy was up to England’s tour and he just informed the board that he no longer wants to continue as captain of the Indian team.

On Test captaincy Vengsarkar cleared the air, “We had no talks with Sachin regarding Test captaincy as we haven’t think about it yet, we will decide on this issue after the ODI series”.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's ODI track record, for the past two years between 2004 and 2007 has been quite impressive; Dhoni has played a total of 84 matches and scored a total 2477 runs averaging 44.23. His highest knock was 183 and has also managed 3 centuries and 14 half centuries so far.

More than his skills what has impressed his predecessors like Farokh Engineer is the Jharkhand lad's character.

Reacting to the news, Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda delighted about Dhoni’s selection as Indian skipper. "If Dhoni becomes ODI captain, it will be a great moment for Jharkhand," said Koda.

The 26-year-old, who made his international debut for India in 2004, is currently captaining the Indian Twenty20 Team in South Africa.

Team for the first three matches of Australia series: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Yuvraj Singh (vice-captain), Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Dinesh Karthick, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, Piyush Chawla, RP Singh, Zaheer Khan, S. Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh