MS Dhoni most successful, but not the best

Numbers don't lie. MS Dhoni was India's longest-serving Test captain. He is sixth on the all-time list. He led in 60 Tests — 11 more than Sourav Ganguly, 13 more than Mohammad Azharuddin and Sunil Gavaskar, 20 more than Tiger Pataudi and 26 more than Kapil Dev. With 27 wins (again sixth-highest), he was also India's most successful Test captain. Ganguly had 21, Azharuddin 14, and the rest fewer than 10. He guided India to series wins at home (obviously), and in New Zealand, Bangladesh and the West Indies. At the same time, he fared poorly in cricket's traditional bastions — England, Australia and South Africa (twice) — managing only to win the one-off contest and losing. He also guided India to the pinnacle of the rankings in the five-day game.

What the numbers don't tell you is how defensive he was. They don't tell you how miserably he failed in carrying his Midas touch from the one-day game into the Test arena. They don't tell you how underwhelming he was as a batsman in overseas conditions. They don't tell you how often he let the advantage, sessions, days and matches drift. They don't tell you how bull-headed he was while defending himself and the team after repeated failures. They don't tell you how long-winding his process-and-result eulogies were. Simply put, one can't blindly call him India's best-ever captain in white flannels.

In any other sport, the captain is first among equals. There are no such democratic formalities in cricket. Here, the captain is king. He attends selection meetings or, at least, conveys his views to the wise men. He picks the XI, chooses to bat or field, decides the batting order, throws the ball to whoever he wants, devises strategies, gets the other 10 to play accordingly, sets the field, changes the field, accepts bouquets after a facile win and brickbats — albeit reluctantly — after a crushing loss. That apart, it's the captain's prerogative to build a team. Clive Lloyd built a golden generation of cricketers with players hailing from an archipelago. So did Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and, to a great extent, Pataudi and Ganguly. What about Dhoni? Does he even have a spearhead — pacer or spinner — to show? Please don't utter the names Ishant Sharma and R Ashwin.

Twelve matches into his reign as Test skipper, India rose to claim the top spot in the ICC rankings for Test teams. Lest we forget, the likes of Rahul Dravid, and Ganguly prior to him, played a huge part in this achievement. And, now, where are India placed after a litany of series defeats, especially abroad? Don't even bother looking.

Back in 2011, Dhoni refused to press for a win in the third and final Test of the West Indies series. He was content with a 1-0 scoreline. If nothing, that myopic approach caused him and India eight straight overseas defeats.

The rot didn't end there. Alastair Cook did a David Gower in India. Then, Dhoni presided over losses in every other part of the world. The cycle resumed in the English summer this year. And if you didn't expect India to be 0-2 down after three Tests in Australia, then you are lying. That's because you probably expected them to lose in Melbourne too.

When someone retires, you are supposed to exclaim 'why?' or 'why not?'. In Dhoni's case, it's 'thank god'. It's high time we stopped living in a dream world. The Test team stagnated under him. We were barely competitive abroad. Had he continued, we would have hit deeper lows. He should have quit at least two years ago. It's high time Virat Kohli took over. He's the only ray of hope in sight.