By Aroonim Bhuyan, IANS,
Dubai : Former Indian cricket captain Kapil Dev sees no urgency in elevating Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the Test captain and says he can wait till incumbent Anil Kumble calls it a day.
“Anil Kumble (as India’s Test captain) has done extremely well,” Kapil told reporters here Thursday.
“At the moment, Dhoni is doing extremely well. It is a matter of time – today, tomorrow, whenever, that he will be made the captain. Anil Kumble is 38-39 years old. Whenever he calls it a day, I think he (Dhoni) will take over,” he added.
Dhoni’s captaincy was well-appreciated in India’s punishing 320-run victory over Australia in the second Test of the four-match series in Mohali earlier this week.
Kumble had sat out the match following a shoulder injury.
Dhoni was also adjudged the Man of the Match at Mohali following his two crucial knocks in the game.
“The positive side is we have somebody in the team who is ready to take the (captain’s) seat,” the former Indian captain who led India to World Cup victory in 1983 said.
Dhoni is already the captain of India’s one-day side and led the team to victory in the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa last year.
When it was pointed out that Dhoni reminded many people of a young Kapil Dev, the legendary all-rounder smiled: “Oh, he is far better than me.”
As for the current Australian team, he said it was not as good as previous sides that had toured the sub-continent.
“When you lose top four or five players in the team that dominated world cricket for 15 years, you are going to face trouble,” he said.
Asked whether he subscribed to the view that the Australian dominance of the game had begun to end, he said: “It all depends on how many players you have in the reserve who can come and take their roles well. Many teams now believe that Australia is beatable.”