MSD's away stats too bad to ignore

Comparisons are often made between the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly While comparisons can be fun and debateinviting the away Test results of the current captain are making this little lsquocompetitionrsquo a nocontestSure India fought hard in the Auckland Test where New Zealand won by 40 runs but the stats are there for everyone to see He has not led India to an away win in his last 12 Tests What makes Dhonirsquos record worse is that India have lost nine out of his last 10 overseas TestsSo next time someone says that Dhoni is a good Test captain therersquos no questioning his limited overs captaincy he must follow it with an lsquoonly at homersquo reminder For the record Ganguly led India to 11 Test wins one more than he lost in 28 overseas Tests That Dhoni has just five Test wins in 22 Tests abroad doesnrsquot do justice to his leadership skillsSkipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and coach Duncan Fletcher should have produced far better results abroad PicAFPWhat stops Dhoni from experiencing success when conditions are different from home To be fair to him on the Australian tour of 201112 he didnrsquot have his great batting lineup firing in a pack Earlier in England Zaheer Khan limped off with a hamstring injury on the opening day of the first Test at LordrsquosAnd though toiler Praveen Kumar claimed a fifer he didnrsquot get the Englishmen out cheaply In the next Test at Trent Bridge Dhoni inserted the opposition and Praveen Ishant Sharma and S Sreesanth did well to bowl England out for 221 Indiarsquos 67run first innings lead didnrsquot matter as England piled on a massive 544 before bowling out India for 158 and winning by 319 runsThe tourists were completely outplayed at Edgbaston and the Oval where RP Singh returning from his reported holiday in Miami couldnrsquot replicate the kind of performance which was one of the reasons why then England captain Michael Vaughan said the Indian bowlers taught his team something about swing bowlingHearing Vaughan utter those words in the media conference room at the Oval made me proud of Rahul Dravidrsquos soldiers but all that evaporated in the 2011 series Dhonirsquos biggest challenges abroad arrive when a batsman is on the rampage and he doesnrsquot have the heavy artillery in his bowling lineup to stop the flow of runsExperts may reckon he is short of ideas as well Sample the big scorers he has had to deal with abroad in his last 10 Tests since July 2011 202 not out by Kevin Pietersen at Lordrsquos in 2011 294 by Alastair Cook at Edgbaston in 2011 175 by Kevin Pietersen at the Oval in 2011 235 by Ian Bell at the Oval in 2011 329 by Michael Clarke at Sydney in 2012 180 by David Warner at Perth in 2012 224 by Brendon McCullum at Auckland in 2013With Indiarsquos young batsmen having the performance to support hope for the future itrsquos now time the young fast bowlers blossom soon for their country and captain The likes of Mohammad Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar whenever he gets to play his first Test abroad need to play a string of Test matches without being interrupted by loss of form or fitness issuesThere is also a failure to cash in on his luck at the toss In his last 10 Tests Dhoni has won the toss on six occasions Even though coaches donrsquot get credited in the scorecard for victories they are meant to play a significant role Duncan Fletcher has been coach during those defeats in England and Australia Yet he was not replaced Itrsquos a strange situation to be in Asking better results from the players but living with a poor record as coachDespite Dhonirsquos disastrous record abroad he is still the best man to lead India simply because there are no other options The same cannot be said when it comes to coaches Surely Fletcher enjoys great support from the big bosses of Indian cricket but there must come a time where results must be looked intoHe gets what no other coach in world cricket enjoys not being questioned by the media on a regular basis It was baffling not to see him attending a press conference before the team left for South Africa but making an appearance on arrival in SA where the captain and he addressed the mediaDhoni will not be able to end the New Zealand tour with a series win but he can stop New Zealand from winning it For a player of his calibre he needs to contribute significantly with the bat too His overseas Test average since the start of the 2011 tour of England is 2544 and his last half century abroad came against Australia at Sydney two years ago Will the real Dhoni please stand upClayton Murzello is MiD DAYrsquos Group Sports Editor