Dhoni’s form with the bat and gloves has taken a drastic slide due to his captaincy woes

Former India batsman Sourav Ganguly had thrown his support behind the idea of the national team adopting a split captaincy policy in order to take some pressure off Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s shoulders.

Ganguly noted that Dhoni should still be captain in at least one format, but just not across all three.

“I am not saying just ship him off all the formats of the game because India are going into a transition phase and building a new team,” Ganguly said. “Sit with Dhoni and ask him what form of cricket he wants to captain. He has done a lot of good things for Indian cricket, but at the present moment, I am just fearing that we will lose him as a player if he continues like this.”

Ganguly noted that Dhoni’s job as captain and wicketkeeper was extremely tough and added that critics should not be so quick to attack the Indian skipper after losing the four-Test series against England and the limited overs series against arch-rivals Pakistan.

“Keeping is never easy and when you have a bowling attack like ours, which has not performed over a period of time,” Ganguly said. “You keep for hours and then you captain the side and you come out and bat at no. 7.

“So it’s never easy for for Dhoni and I’m a firm believer that his job has to be split and he needs a reprieve in some format.”

The former batsman also mentioned that Sachin Tendulkar “desperately needs to get runs” if he is to continue being an asset to the team.

“Sachin desperately needs to get runs,” Ganguly added. “He has achieved a lot. He is getting a long rope because of what he has achieved. He should know himself that how he needs to turn it around.

“As somebody watching it from outside Tendulkar not performing, I think if I was Tendulkar I would go. But it’s upto him at the present moment. We want to see the great man going with a bat held high and not in terrible form.”