Dhoni, bowlers face flak for tactics

MELBOURNE: India's obstinacy played into Australia's hands on Saturday. MS Dhoni, who once worked for Indian Railways, turned on the railroad switch and treated his seamers like goods trains forced to change track on a whim. The result was awry lengths and a muddled performance which enabled Smith and the Aussie tail to take the game away early on Day Two.

Dhoni has been accused of letting the game drift and in both Brisbane and here, he has been eager to target the tail with short balls. The ploy failed at the Gabba and it failed here again, forcing Dhoni to switch to more recognizable, more sedate defensive fields after lunch. Dhoni made the trio of Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Mohammad Shami bowl short to Haddin and bowl length to Smith at the other end, an impossible order to carry out for most pacers as it disrupts their rhythm.

Haddin had been out to such a delivery at the Gabba but decided to take the bowling on this time. In a short while, Dhoni's bowlers were looking incapable of bowling to their fields. Shami, the slowest of the lot, came off the worst affected and strayed too often down leg. India's best bowler on the first day, Ravichandran Ashwin, was inexplicably introduced only 25 minutes before lunch.

Former Australia captain turned commentator Ian Chappell went so far as to label Dhoni's captaincy the "worst he has seen in Test cricket", adding: "It's ridiculous. He's not giving his bowlers a chance. It's difficult for a bowler to thump it in against one batsman and bowl good line and length to the other. He (Dhoni) has lapses as a captain. You have a use-by date as a captain and Dhoni passed his a long-time ago."

India had bowled to a plan on the first day and the change in tactic was unfathomable, especially after Mitchell Johnson had taken the game away at the Gabba after confronting the same short-ball tactic.

India have allowed the opposition to score 400-plus from being five down for less than 250 four times in 2014 and seven times since 2010. It has happened twice against New Zealand, thrice against England and twice here. The seventh to 10th wickets have scored at an average of 4.06, the maximum against any team.

Ashwin, though, defended the pre-lunch tactic to bowl short.

Asked why India persisted with the short ball to Haddin when he seemed comfortable, Ash win shot back, "Did he seem comfort able? If you say so.

We really thought we had a genuine weakness over there. We will continue to target him."

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