Why Dhoni is a better captain than Kumble

India's coach Gary Kirsten must be wondering how he landed in this soup, because he was simply stating the obvious. "Dhoni is obviously ready for Test captaincy, but there's no rush," he told a TV channel, and got publicly ticked off by the cricket board for making the statement. "What will Kumble think" was probably the concern. But the question the board, selectors and everyone else should really answer is why on earth "there's no rush".

The Test team led by Anil Kumble has lost two out of the last three series, and drawn one on home soil. During that time, the one-day team led by MS Dhoni has posted India's first tri-series victory in Australia, and won a series in Sri Lanka after 25 years. But while the performances themselves are like chalk and cheese, the comparison between the two sides is just as stark when you look at how they are being led.

Leading from the front
After the Test team floundered match after match against Ajantha Mendis in Sri Lanka, Dhoni showed in the one-dayers that followed not only how to survive but also how to put the rookie spinner under pressure by punishing every bad ball he bowled. And, while Dhoni has played more than one responsible innings to anchor his team's victory, Kumble has been bowling over after frustrating over, averaging over 40 runs a wicket in the last three Test series, two of which have been played on spin-friendly sub-continental pitches.

To see Kumble grimace and curse every time there's a misfielding or dropped catch off his bowling is becoming ludicrous considering his own performance with the ball and on the field. Dhoni, on the other hand, tends to encourage his players even when they make mistakes, although he can have a go when he feels the team needs a push, as he did when Yuvraj slackened off in the field in the decisive fourth ODI against Lanka. Of course, his own improving glovework, selfless batting according to the team's requirements, and willingness to work hard obviously gives him more authority and respect than an ageing, weakening Kumble can command after being handed the captaincy in the twilight of his career.

Taking hard decisions
It's an open secret that none of the senior players from the Test team, except Sachin Tendulkar, could get into the one-day team Down Under because of Dhoni's insistence. The chairman of selectors quietly dropped a hint here and there to let this fact be known, just in case the callow team were to be put to the sword by the world champs Australia and the World Cup runners-up Sri Lanka in the tri-series, as the pundits foretold. Instead, Dhoni's team made history, getting the better of Ponting's redoubtable men in their own backyard, ending a tour laden with acrimony on a high.
Compare that with Anil Kumble's continuance with a middle order manned by four men in their late thirties, despite one setback after another. At the start of the Lankan series, he said his experienced batsmen would fare better against Mendis than the one-day team had done in the preceding Asia Cup final. In the end, he squarely put the blame for losing the series on his experienced batsmen, losing sight of his own non-performance in a series where every other spinner thrived on the turning tracks. What could he do? Ditch his struggling friend Rahul Dravid? Or drop Sourav Ganguly ahead of Dravid and try to justify that? As it turned out, he opted for status quo and defeat with an unchanged 'muddle order'.

Sticking his neck out
More than anything else, it's the courage to stick one's neck out that marks out a leader. Who can forget Dhoni's choice of Joginder Sharma to bowl that final, tense over of the Twenty20 World Cup final which India won by one run when Misbah-ul-Haq spooned a catch to Sreesanth off the last ball? The merits of that choice can be debated, but think of all the flak Dhoni would have caught in his maiden venture as captain if the military medium, inexperienced, bits-and-pieces Sharma had been taken to the cleaners in that over. That did not prevent Dhoni from doing what he felt at that time was what was required to win. That's the sort of captain India's Test team needs if it has to get the better of the Aussies when they come calling next month.

Dhoni is far from perfect. He lost the first ODI against Lanka, for instance, by choosing to bat first on a green wicket after winning the toss, instead of letting his pacers have a go on it, which he did when he again won the toss in the second ODI on the same pitch. Thus he comes across as somebody who is willing to learn, instead of sticking stubbornly to a losing formula. These qualities were apparent in the IPL too as he led his Chennai Super Kings to the final, changing tack by preferring to chase even though he is more of a "bat first" captain. Ponting and Co. must consider themselves fortunate that it will probably be Kumble's has-beens they will have to contend with, instead of Dhoni and his jolly bunch who already know they can beat the Aussies, having done that in the T20s and one-dayers.

c_sumit@dnaindia.net