Dhoni era is over, what will Kohli bring?

As the new year dawns, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli have to confront fresh avatars of themselves. The Indian cricket Test captaincy, arguably the second most important position in the country, has changed hands. As the cliché goes, an era had passed and a new one’s begun.

At a philosophical level, this should not be an event causing great turmoil; after all, everything in life is transitory as the sages remind us. But at the mundane, worldly level, the abruptness of Dhoni’s retirement left the cricket universe confounded.

What really forced Dhoni’s hand is still a matter of speculation and I can’t profess either knowing what transpired in his mind or in the Indian dressing room beyond what is already in the public domain. Perhaps the "mystery" will unravel over the next few days; just perhaps we may have to wait for Dhoni to write his autobiography.

Fact, however, is that he had been under enormous pressure for the team’s dismal performances overseas over the last four years and, willy-nilly, something had to give. The chutzpah with which he led in limited overs cricket strangely turned into tepid tactics and somnambulistic leadership in the five-day format since the 2011 World Cup win. Increasingly, Dhoni began to look careworn and sullen.

In the past 12 to 15 months particularly, as India lost series after series overseas, Dhoni just didn’t seem to have the bandwidth to arrest the slide. Whether this was essentially because of India’s poor bowling resources, the physical and mental toll playing non-stop cricket had taken of him, or plain uninspiring captaincy is a moot point. Yet, when the results are so adverse for so long, the buck must stop somewhere. In cricket, this is at the captain’s door.

The irony, of course, is that under Dhoni, India had climbed to the number one ranking in Tests too. But the slump since 2011 has been steep: from top dog to the current number six ranking brought in its wake dejection in fans and widespread opprobrium among critics. It must have deeply disappointed Dhoni too. Moreover, he was also sucked into the IPL corruption case currently being played out in the Supreme Court could not have left him unaffected.

My surmise is that Dhoni had already made up his mind to retire from Test cricket after this series but wanted to sign off on a winning note. Victory against Australia offered some redemption.  The drawn third Test quashed this hope - and with it, perhaps, his motivation to continue in this format.

Which brings us to Kohli who now has the Test captaincy all by himself. The stiffest challenge he faces is of resuscitating India’s fortunes in this format. He will be helped in this to a large extent that he is currently not burdened with leading in limited overs cricket where Dhoni is still in charge. He can focus completely on the one area where his predecessor faltered.

Just how good Kohli can be is something everybody will watch with great interest. He has been in leadership positions since his under-19 days and by all accounts he relishes it. In his first Test as captain, which came on this tour, he scored two centuries, indicating that such onus should not affect his batting; in fact enhance it.

But reputations are not made on the basis of only one Test. Indeed, even at Adelaide while his superb batting brought India very close to a win, the scorebook still shows a defeat.

Some former players even opined that he is aggressive to a fault: in not playing to save the Adelaide Test when victory looked beyond reach as well as getting into slanging matches with opponents subsequently too, they cite.

Only 26, this can be attributed to Kohli’s youthfulness. His energy, in-your-face competitiveness and a "naked" desire to win are wonderful to watch and are undoubted assets. But at the highest level, unless aggression is used judiciously and peppered with tactical acumen and effective man management towards achieving a defined goal, it can boomerang.

Kohli has won everybody’s admiration and support. But he would know how fickle this can be in Indian cricket where expectations are sky-high and tolerance of poor results at bootlace levels. His time begins now.