DH Radio | The Lead: IPL — Dhoni and the youngsters vs old guard conundrum

In this episode of The Lead from DH Radio, we discuss the recent row over Krishnamachari Srikkanth lambasting MS Dhoni on his remark that youngsters lack the spark; the significance of batsmen like Chris Gayle; the performance of Indian openers like KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan and Mayank Agarwal; the standards of fitness in cricket and the upcoming match between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Mumbai Indians.

Sidney Kiran: Hello and welcome to another episode of DH Lead IPL. I am sure most of you watched the video of Kris Srikkanth lambasting M S Dhoni on his remark that youngsters lack the spark. If you haven't, you should, like the Srikkanth in full flow in the 80s. Srikkanth did raise a few issues on Dhoni's captaincy and Dhoni's words also hold some credence. Today, Roshan Tyagrajan, my colleague from the sports desk, and I debate on what;'s going wrong with Dhoni and why he should have stepped aside after the World Cup last year to avoid all this mess that is jeopardizing his wonderful career.

Hi Roshan. How are you doing?

Roshan Tyagrajan: Hi, Sidney. I'm good.

Sidney: Some opening thoughts on this mess that Dhoni has got himself into. Dhoni is the batsman who always backed youngsters. I want to go back to the Australia series before the 2011 World Cup. Even in his biopic, he clearly told the selectors that he doesn't want the old guard in his team because they might score runs but may give up 20-30 runs in fielding. Dhoni is one guy who right from the time he took charge of the team, he is one person who has always batted for youngsters. He believed that youngsters are the main crux of the team. For him to come up and say this was very very shocking for me. Also, this comes after him not giving too many chances to the youngsters. They have only played a couple of matches and he is judging them so early. Not just this. There are so many things that we are seeing that are unlike Dhoni. We rarely used to see Dhoni get angry...

To know more about the conversation, listen to the podcast.