Mahendra Singh Dhoni‘s sudden retirement from Test Cricket during the ongoing India-Australia Test series caught everyone by surprise. As the Dhoni era in Indian Cricket enters its sunset, it is a fair question to ask what kind of legacy Dhoni is leaving behind, and where does he stand relative to his predecessors, as well as the contemporary Test captains.
Last year, we had come up with a new way of ranking captains in International Cricket. This method uses the head-to-head win-loss-draw records between each pairs of captains to find a score for each captain (higher the score, the better the captain is). You can find the ranks of all the captains from year 2000 onwards on the Captain Ranks page. Among his contemporaries, Dhoni ranks fifth as a Test captain. He led India to 60 test matches, and won 27 of those matches for a 45% winning percentage. That makes him the most successful Test captain of India ever. Dhoni’s record is certainly not in the league of stalwarts such as Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting, or Steve Waugh – all three of whom are in a different class altogether. However, one could make a fair argument that Dhoni leads the list of captains in the next class. Among his predecessors, his closest comparison is with Sourav Ganguly. And with respect to his contemporaries, his career was parallel and very similar to the another captain whose career might unfortunately also be reaching an end – Michael Clarke. Let’s look at both the comparisons in more detail.
Sourav Ganguly is often regarded as the captain whose leadership transformed Indian Cricket, especially in the Test format. In Cricket circles, whether Ganguly was the best ever captain or whether it is Dhoni has always been an ongoing debate. In terms of win-loss record, Ganguly’s win percentage of 43% (21 wins out of 49 matches) is remarkably close to that of Dhoni. Supporters of Ganguly point to his 9 overseas wins, as compared to 6 for Dhoni. However, after discounting away victories against minnows like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, both end up with 5 overseas victories against “tough” Test teams. So in that respect too their records are similar. Our ranking method actually gives a much higher score to Dhoni than Ganguly, but this is generally not the perception among Indian Cricket fans.
One reason for that perception might be because some of the spectacular successes of Ganguly really stand out – in particular, the dramatic series win against Australia in 2001, and the drawn series against the same Australia, in Australia, in 2003/4. In contrast, Dhoni’s tenure lacked such “oustanding” career moments. Perhaps the zenith of Dhoni’s Test leadership was when India reached the top of ICC Test rankings in 2009, but that was when Dhoni still had at his disposal stalwarts like Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman. Call it the recency effect, but fans remember Dhoni’s leadership more for recent failures – in particular, the 4-0 whitewash against England and Australia in 2011, then losing to England at home in 2012, and then losing to England again in 2014. Many of those defeats had big margins, and during the course of these defeats it appeared that Dhoni just gave up on the hope of winning and did not appear interested in playing Test Cricket at all. However, with there wasn’t much Dhoni could do with a bowling attack that was perennially injured and lacked effectiveness outside the subcontinent. The departure of the above mentioned trio seemed to be the final blow for whatever little chances India might have had of securing an overseas Test series win.
With regards to his contemporaries, Michael Clarke certainly comes closest to Dhoni. Clarke led Australia to 20 wins in Test matches out of 40 he led his team in, resulting in a 50% win percentage that is shade above Dhoni’s. Just like Dhoni, Clarke had to face the challenge of having a relatively inexperienced batting lineup. In 2013, his team failed to win a single away Test match. Australia lost all their 4 Test match in India, and then lost the Ashes in England 3-0. The emergence of Mitchell Johnson meant that Clarke at least had a bowling attack that was capable of taking 20 wickets in a Test match. Dhoni rarely had that luxury. Both Clarke and Dhoni have terrific home records, and terrible away records. The perceptual difference with Clarke, however, is that Clarke at least seemed to care and his record as a batsman was fairly good even during the period when his team struggled.
On an average though, Dhoni’s Test Cricket is quite similar to that of both Ganguly and Clarke. Given that in the past few years Dhoni had to manage with resources that were fairly sub-standard compared to what Ganguly and Clarke were provided with – Dhoni’s record starts looking much better. Dhoni really had to squeeze out the best from whatever team he had (and especially the bowling attack), and perhaps this took a toll on him mentally whenever he took the field for a Test match. But despite his more recent failures, it will be extremely unfair to overlook his early successes in his Test career. As a wicketkeeper-batsman, he was certainly the best India ever had. As a Test captain, his legacy is secure as being the most successful captain of the Indian team, even though there might not be many outstanding moments in that period. His leadership will definitely be missed in the dressing room of the Indian Test team.