Mohinder Amarnath Says South Africa Series Loss Could Signal End of Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Captaincy Era

Former India selector and a member of the 1983 World Cup winning team, Mohinder Amarnath, believes that the series loss against South Africa could signal the end of Mahendra Singh Dhoni's captaincy era.

Writing in his column for Times of India, Amarnath remarked that it is time for Virat Kohli to lead in all formats of the game.

"The next trend in Indian cricket is the growth of Kohli as the fulcrum of the team. In the recent series, it is evident that the team tends to do well when Kohli does well," Amarnath stated.

India have endured a torrid time in one-day internationals in 2015. Under Dhoni's captaincy, India have failed to win a single series this year. They lost in the tri-series in Australia in January, were eliminated in the semi-finals of the World Cup, lost a bilateral series to Bangladesh for the first time in June and have lost both the Twenty20 series and the ODI series against South Africa.

The loss to South Africa was their first bilateral series loss at home since 2012. This has only deepened the gloom in the Indian camp and with the Test series coming up, the atmosphere in the team is not good.

This is not the first time that Amarnath has gone after Dhoni. When India lost eight away Tests on-the-trot against England and Australia in 2011/12, Amarnath had called for Dhoni to be replaced as Test captain.

In 2014, following India's 3-1 series loss to England, Amarnath once again wanted Dhoni to be removed as captain.

"Dhoni is a defensive captain who allows opposition to make a comeback in the game. His record is good at home pitches only like any other Indian captain. There is nothing special about it. We need aggressive captains," Amarnath had said at that time.

Amarnath as national selector again?

The situation for Dhoni could get complicated for there are reports that Amarnath could return as chief selector. The BCCI is scheduled to hold the Annual General Meeting on November 9 and should Amarnath return, it would be interesting to see how he deals with Dhoni.

The outspoken Amarnath was earlier dropped from the senior national selection panel in 2012 in controversial circumstances after the-then BCCI president, N. Srinivasan, expressed his displeasure on Amarnath's suggestion to remove Dhoni as skipper.

The recent series loss has posed plenty of questions about Dhoni's captaincy. Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar said the Indian skipper had no flexibility in his bowling changes. In a column for ESPNCricinfo, Sanjay Manjrekar wrote that Dhoni is suffering from self-doubt.

"When talking about team failures, the undesirable use of "they" instead of "we" has started creeping into his (Dhoni's) vocabulary as captain. You get the impression when you watch him, especially these days, that he is all alone out there, doing things his way. I think a little weakness has crept into him. He now seems to really care about winning," Manjrekar wrote.

Kohli has an uphill task if India are to regroup in the Test matches. South Africa are the No.1 Test team in the world and they have not lost a series overseas since 2006. The scars inflicted on India will have to heal quickly if they are to salvage some pride ahead of what is a tough cricketing season ahead.