Dhoni should reassess himself

It was a disappointing end to the series with another huge margin of defeat at the Oval.

What has taken aback a lot of us, including me, is the massive drop in the level of the game as the tour went on. In sport, some win some lose, but as long as there is a fight and there is a competition, one accepts the losses.

No doubt there is a lot of talent in the dressing room — the likes of Kohli, Rahane, Pujara are players with enormous ability — but the reason behind their continuous failure with the bat must be on account of a huge drop in self-belief as the tour progressed, more than their level of batsmanship.

Once that starts happening the best look ordinary. A five-test series is a lot of cricket, and the pressure of poor scores coupled with big totals posted by England in the first innings made it difficult for Indian batsman to cope up.

Criticism apart, we must give them a little bit of space as they are in early days of their careers. But they must remember to learn from this and make sure they come out an improved lot. They will play a lot of five-test series in the future and should find a way to remain fresh throughout the gruelling tours. Skipper MS Dhoni too has to reassess himself much improved, but his overseas captaincy is not getting better. As much as I believe he should still carry on in spite of the call for his head, he needs a massive improvement in his tactics.

His team has suffered far too many losses in the last four years, something which can affect any captain but it is he who can lot more proactive rather than allowing it to drift. He should have shuffled around the batting when things were not going right just to release the pressure on players