By CricketCountry Staff
Former Australian cricketer Mark Taylor feels Indian skipper MS Dhoni should take lessons from Mahela Jayawardene’s aggressive captaincy that has reflected in Sri Lanka’s resurgence in the CB Series.
Published: Mar 05, 2012, 02:40 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 05, 2012, 02:40 PM (IST)
Mark Taylor feels MS Dhoni has to be more aggressive as a captain in foreign conditions © Getty Images
By CricketCountry Staff
Sydney: Mar 5, 2012
Former Australian cricketer Mark Taylor feels Indian skipper MS Dhoni should take lessons from Mahela Jayawardene’s aggressive captaincy that has reflected in Sri Lanka’s resurgence in the CB Series.
Highlighting India’s poor record on foreign pitches, Taylor said there are many lessons to be learnt for India from their horrendous tour Down Under, one of them is aggressive one-day captaincy.
“Mahendra Singh Dhoni has to be more aggressive in his captaincy. Look at the way Mahela Jayawardene has captained and it has reflected by Sri Lanka performance in the series.”
Taylor also felt that Dhoni’s captaincy is apt for subcontinent conditions, but his strategy does not work on pitches that assist bowlers.
“In India, the first act of a captain is to defend runs rather than take wickets. In Australia, it should be to take wickets and then prevent runs,” Taylor said on television, according to MiD DAY.
“On flat wickets, the captain is thinking how do I defend a total of 300 or restrict the opposition to 300. In Australia, a captain is thinking about does he take three wickets in the first 15 overs”, remarked Taylor who felt it is the line of thinking in latter part of the statement that Dhoni is not comfortable with.
With the 2015 World Cup to be held in Australia, the captain’s mindset will be critical. “I don’t know who will captain India in three years’ time, but from this tour, it is an important lesson that should be learnt if India is to succeed,” added Taylor.
The former Aussie skipper believed despite India’s tremendous ODI talent, aggressive captaincy is the pre-requisite to do well in foreign conditions.
“If I were Dhoni, I might just look back at this series and have a look at the way Mahela has captained the team. He has always looked for wickets and has been in the face of the Aussies,” he said.
