Indian Cricket: The Dhoni Positive

Indian cricket has been undergoing a transformation since about a year from defensive or negative cricket to aggressive and positive cricket. Thanks to the Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni Team India must have seen the last of 'generous' cricket.

Just watch the score line. 2-0 against Australia in ODI Tri-series in Australia; 2-0 against Australia again in home Test Series; 5-0 against England in home ODI series (the lead could have been more devastating if two matches were not cancelled due to the Mumbai terror attack of 26/11.); 1-0 against England again in home Test series and 1-0 lead against Sri Lanka right at the start of 2009 in the ODI series in Sri Lanka. The margins are quite significant because zero figures in all of them. This had been an Australian specialty since long.

And still more significantly nobody is making exclamatory writings or utterances. Nobody is saying these are 'incredible' or 'freak wins' or 'flukes' or 'upsets'. The cricket scribes, commentators and specialists had developed a mindset over the years on India's pathetic display and so always tended to dismiss even deserving wins as 'flukes' or 'upset wins' at best except perhaps during former skipper Saurav Ganguly's aggressively successful years. India was described as 'capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory' or 'capable of losing matches from any position'. This writer too tried to explore the theorem of 'how not to win' for India. Team India was called 'chucker' as they managed to lose most of the crucial final fixtures.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is aggressive by instinct. He has already been lauded as a master thinking captain and is having an enviable success rate in both Tests and ODIs. He has a stout body language and his disarmingly sweet smile makes it infectious. Then with his success as a batsman in any position he becomes a perfect leader who can lead from the front and can now manage to 'snatch victory from the jaws of defeat'. No wonder then that all Team India players are infused with a positive body language and are playing true to their potential, at last. Add Gary Kirsten, former South African opener with stupendous record, to that and you see the results.

Old iconic star cricketers are getting thrown out as Team India now focuses attention only on winning. Australia had been in the positive cricket bracket of late and the beginning of their fall started when their 'positive' approach had gone overboard with undue foul aggression and crude uncalled for sledging. India and South Africa are giving Australia the most bitter run for their top spot now.

The Dhoni factor needs to be studied with care and needs to be guided to seemingly unattainable heights. It should not be hyped. Positive cricket is something everybody looks forward to watching.