Dhoni plays down captaincy record

The comprehensive innings and 135-run win over Australia not only helped India take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the four-Test series, but also catapulted MS Dhoni as the most successful Indian captain with 22 wins in 45 matches, surpassing Sourav Ganguly.

Dhoni, however, wasn’t gung-ho about his achievement. “I think it’s overrated and hyped,” he retorted when reminded of his record. “If you see our dressing room right now, we are not bothered about who has won how many matches. What’s important is to win Test matches. The more consistent we become the better it is for the side. I don’t think this number really matters to us. What’s important is that the last two matches we have done really well,” he remarked.

Dhoni had come under a bit of flak for openly demanding turning tracks during England series but this time even on pitches that aren’t turning square from day one, Indian spinners have been doing an excellent job.

“The problem arises if (for the) first two or two and half days, it’s really flat and nothing happens for the spinners,” Dhoni tried to reason. “If you score may be 100 runs extra because the wicket is good and if you have to score the same amount of runs on the fourth or fifth day, the margin almost doubles. So, if there is some help for the spinners the toss doesn’t become crucial.”

The realisation, Dhoni pointed out, that the soft ball was turning more led to Indian spinners taking wickets by the bundle in the second Test.

“Well, what we realised was once the ball got old, it started to turn. In India generally you say bowl spinners with the new ball so that they get more turn but here it was slightly different. May be it took a little time to realise that. That’s what really happened for us in the first innings also. In the second session there was hardly any turn for the spinners. The odd ball used to turn but overall, that session we struggled a bit. All of a sudden the ball became soft and once we came back after tea, we saw that spinners were able to get a bit of turn and put pressure on the opposition,” he explained.

Michael Clarke finds himself in a situation through which Dhoni was going through during two 4-0 drubbings in England and Australia. When asked if he would suggest Clarke to scream at his non-performing team-mates, Dhoni said he wouldn’t poke his nose into others’ business. “I won’t like to poke my nose but I would just like to say that screaming won’t really help. That’s the only advice.