Should MSD follow McCullum and Sangakkara

Wikipedia
MS Dhoni has mentioned today that he will request the BCCI for rest before the series against South Africa overseas. He has mentioned Suresh Raina along with him. He says:

We will put in a request to the board but we have to see whether senior players are available or not

This statement means that he is still not sure of the rest. The squad will be announced probably during the last day of the test match.



If one remembers, few days back, the BCCI had agreed to send few Indian players early to South Africa to acclimatise. It is too early to say who will be rested from the Indian team for the ODI series. The selectors have a tough job on hand - they need to balance the squad for ODIs as well as the travel to South Africa. Both are equally important for the Indian team and this request by MSD will put them in a quandry. Of course, this does not mean that his request is not necessary - he has been one of the busiest person in the entire team.



While on this, one feels for the person. He has been donning the role of a captain, keeping wickets and shoring up the lower order in all the three formats. Is it asking too much of him? Add to this, the similar responsibilities for his IPL team. His keeping has gone down a notch - dropping vital catches in test matches. His batting in test matches has gone down quite a bit, though in ODIs he is still the Number 1 batsman. There are other keepers in the country who can do a good job with the gloves - ones like Dinesh Karthick or Parthiv Patel.

Should he follow the example of Brendon McCullum and Kumar Sangakkara in test matches? They have given up the gloves and handed over the duties to another person. This will ensure that he retains his freshness for the prime role of captaincy while making him still invaluable to the team.

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