Syed Kirmani

Vadodara: Syed Kirmani, India’s first wicketkeeper-captain, has been bowled over by Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s “freshness and dignified behaviour,” but is against his getting the Test captaincy as well.

“Dhoni’s the man for the captaincy in all forms, but not at this point in time… Let him settle down in the one-day game before giving him so much more responsibility,” Kirmani told The Telegraph.

Speaking on the sidelines of the fifth ODI, he added: “In my view, the selectors should offer the Test captaincy to Sachin Tendulkar and, if he declines, then they ought to look at Sourav Ganguly… That, I believe, is the way forward…

“Besides Anil Kumble, Sachin and Sourav are the two senior-most cricketers and they deserve to be respected… Giving the captaincy to one of them will be one big way of doing so…”

Kirmani, also a former chief selector, said that Dilip Vengsarkar and Co. should anoint Dhoni as the one-day captain till the end of the season. “That will lift his confidence even more, besides sending a strong signal to the dressing room.”

He added: “Dhoni’s captaincy in the World Twenty20 was particularly impressive and, never before, have I seen the team gel so well… They played for each other and the pressure situations were exceedingly well handled.”

According to Kirmani, arguably India’s greatest wicket-keeper, Dhoni’s work behind the stumps had “improved,” but there was “room to get better.”

Kirmani, incidentally, declined to talk about his defeat in last month’s Karnataka State Cricket Association elections. “There’s a lot that can be said, but I’d rather not say anything… Main mooh band rakhoon ga…”

While the one and only Gundappa Viswanath failed to become president, Kirmani couldn’t become one of the vice-presidents. They may have been teammates for years, but were in different camps during the elections.