Mahendra Singh Dhoni's "tactical errors" and thepoor form of some senior players were the main reasons for India's early exitfrom the World Twenty20, according to former cricketers who said that there wasno need for making drastic changes in the team despite the debacle.
While Dhoni came under fire for some of his "tacticalblunders", some former cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar were not in favourof changing the captain or making too many changes in the team.
India failed to qualify for the semifinals of World Twenty20on net run rate and former cricketers said the team's repeated failures in thisformat should be analysed and corrective measures should be taken.
Former Indian captains like Gavaskar, Anil Kumble, DilipVengsarkar and Ajit Wadekar and a host of other ex-cricketers felt that acombination of factors led to India's ouster from the World T20. Some ofDhoni's decisions also evoked criticism from the former players.
"Indian cricket is now at the crossroads. We have notbeen able to do well in the two shorter formats which we have dominated. We wonthe World Twenty20 in 2007 and then won the longer 50-over World Cup last year.After that we have been struggling. This is something we have to look into. Wehave to put our heads together and find out why this has been happening,"Gavaskar said.
"I am not saying that there should be an inquiry or areport being sought from the coach. I am also not saying that heads will haveto be rolled and there is need for change of captaincy. Absolutely, there is noneed for all these things," he added.
Gavaskar said that the coach and the captain alone shouldnot be blamed for the debacle as they had taken decisions in the interest ofthe team.
"We can't blame the captain of the coach for this. Theytake the decision thinking that it would be in the interest of the team. Nocaptain or coach wants to cut his own foot by taking wrong decisionsdeliberately. Sometimes, the decisions work and sometimes they do not," hesaid.
"So what I feel is we may have gone wrong in thetactical aspect. You need to tweak here and there. I feel we went wrong tacticallyin the tri-series in Australia and then Asia Cup and now World Twenty20. Wecould have done differently but I am not suggesting change in captaincy. Thereis absolutely no need for this," he added.
Former India opener Chetan Chauhan said that Dhoni had totake responsibility for the team's failure and also felt that pacer Zaheer Khanshould not play for India in T20 cricket.
"The tournament is played in the sub-continent. We areused to these conditions. We have been to Sri Lanka, we played very wellagainst them. Keeping this fact, I thought that we should have reached thesemifinals. Unfortunately, we did not.
"A captain has to take responsibility, he is thecaptain.
I would not blame him alone, I would blame the entire team.A captain is as good as the team. If you don't perform, a captain could not doanything. Unfortunately, they did not perform there," Chauhan said.
"These are all the factors, plus at few stages Dhonidid make mistakes in decisions, like against Australia, there was no need torest Virender Sehwag," he added.
Chauhan said except for Virat Kohli, none of the batsmenwere consistent in the tournament and that was one of the reasons for India'searly exit.
"We have Rohit Sharma, he did not perform. Leave asideVirat Kohli, few games Suresh Raina, the others were struggling. Yuvraj Singh,Rohit Sharma, Dhoni himself, the batters did not perform that well. The bowlersdid not have enough runs on the board."
"As far as bowling is concerned, Zaheer was struggling.
There is no need to continue with him. We could have easilyplayed Ashok Dinda. Not only Zaheer was struggling in bowling, he was alsostruggling in fielding," said Chauhan.
Former captain Anil Kumble was at a loss or words as to whyDhoni brought in R Ashwin late in the South African run chase when India neededto restrict them within 122 runs.
"There is no point when your best bowlers bowls whenthere are only 25 runs to defend. So that was surprising," he said.
Kumble also agreed that one of the main reasons for India'sdebacle was the poor form of the top-order batsmen.
"Out of five top batsmen, you expect one to fire andmake impact, score a 18-ball 50 but it did not happen.
"Expectations on Virat were huge and he did live up tothose. But Virender Sehwag was not in form. You want your top four to fire inT20 format and when three out of your four top batsmen are not in great alwaystrying to settle in then get big score, it does not work," said Kumble.
Former spinner Murali Karthik felt that Dhoni should havepromoted himself up the order as India needed to post a big total after beingasked to bat by South Africa.
"In a situation like that where you need to kick on andpost a big target, I was wondering if Dhoni could come up. He has done it whenIndia were 120/1 or 140/1, Dhoni has taken charge and I was thinking he wouldpromote himself up," said Karthik.
Former opener Aakash Chopra was also critical of Dhoni fornot promoting the in-form batsmen up the order.
"There is consensus that top was not in great form butthen the guys who were in form batsmen did not step up, they were not pushed upthe batting order, which was surprising.
Dhoni is an astute captain somehow he left a lot to bedesired in this tournament," said Chopra.
