Team India were battered in the decider by the awesome batting power of the South Africans with three of them making centuries in the same innings. It is not often that the team loses on home soil where slow pitches tend to aid spin and negate the pace of visiting quicks. Losing the ODI series on top of the defeats in the T20s means this is a very poor performance by Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men, although they did battle it out to draw level each time they were behind in the ODIs. On a good cricket pitch at the Wankhede Stadium in the decider, their bowling weaknesses stood thoroughly exposed. But then this is a young Team India, a work still in progress in the limited-overs game. That this is South Africa’s first ever ODI series win in 24 years in India is clear enough indication of how poorly India performed.
There is a lack of focus that cannot be blamed on Dhoni alone, although he contributed with some quixotic decisions on the batting order, particularly in shuffling Ajinkya Rahane. His tendency to blame the team for failures (previously he would stand up and take responsibility) is a clear sign that he is slipping from his earlier standing as an undisputed leader. Dhoni might do well to remember that he would have to change some of his own thinking — he even said he was using his brain too much while batting in the T20s — if he is to build a team to challenge the world’s top teams in the world T20 championship that India will host in early 2016.
