Testing times for Mahendra Singh Dhoni

India’s Test captain Dhoni has admitted he prefers the shorter formats of the game [AFP]

Mahendra Singh Dhoni would readily step aside as India captain if there was a suitable replacement available, the under-fire skipper said on Tuesday.

“It’s not something I want to hold on to or stick on to. If there’s a better replacement, it’s a very open thing, he can
come in,” Dhoni told reporters on the eve of India’s first Twenty20 international against Australia.

“At the end of the day, you want India to perform. If there is someone who can do a better job, then it’s a place that
should be given to him. It’s not something you have to cling on to,” he said.

“It’s not a position that belongs to anyone. The responsibility was given to me three-and-half years back and I
have been trying to fit into the shoes, trying to get along with the team and perform well wherever we play.”

“His performance in Test and one-day cricket are poles apart and by making such a statement, he has also perhaps explained his complete disinterest in the longer format of the game” Sourav Ganguly

Under Dhoni, India won the Twenty20 (2007) and 50-over World Cups (2011) and became the top-ranked Test nation before the team’s spectacular decline started in England last year.

The team did not win a single match on that tour, losing the Test series 4-0, and further humiliation awaited them in Australia, where they succumbed to their second successive whitewash abroad.

Dhoni missed the last Test in Adelaide, having incurred a one-match ban for the team’s slow over rate in Perth, but his leadership was as much criticised as the senior batsmen’s failure in the 4-0 series loss in Australia.

Dhoni did not endear himself to the fans and former cricketers either by hinting he might quit Tests to focus on 2015 World Cup.

“I definitely feel that Dhoni does not enjoy Test cricket,” his former captain Sourav Ganguly recently told Aaj Tak channel.

“His performance in Test and one-day cricket are poles apart and by making such a statement, he has also perhaps explained his complete disinterest in the longer format of the game,” Ganguly said.