If 'oblivion' were a fielding position, MS Dhoni finds himself right there – standing completely unaware of what's happening around him. Give him a bat and he looks out of sorts. Ask him to keep and he fumbles repetitively. Tell him to captain and he starts looking over his shoulder. The Indian skipper is in need of some serious retrospection.

The level head that used to find those perfect field placements and play those rational innings with the willow has been undone by some smart cricket by England. The hosts chose to attack the Indian skipper when all eyes were on Sachin Tendulkar, and caught the India skipper napping.

Scores of 28, 16, 5, 0 and 77 so far in the ongoing Test series in England have seriously dented the Indian skipper's psyche. And it has reflected on the field as well. On day three of the Trent Bridge Test, Dhoni behaved as if there's no fielding position called 'Third Man' in cricket. England kept edging, fours kept coming, fielders kept chasing, but Dhoni stood by his 'stubborn' decision. More than 150 runs in that area swelled England's lead and eventually paved way for an embarrassing Indian defeat.

In Edgbaston, when the ball was turning square late on day three, Dhoni opted for the new ball, showing that the script has horribly gone wrong for a skipper, who just three months ago was the toast of a nation. Though he did gave glimpses of his old self with the bat in the first innings at Edgbaston, the real Dhoni in the field was still missing.

A deep third-man to a leggie in Test cricket is almost unheard of! And if it was MS Dhoni's decision, then it's even more baffling as the Indian skipper refused to man that position for his pacers – for almost the whole of England first innings.

Though hurt by injuries to key players, MSD's team selection has also come in for a lot of criticism. How responsible is it on part of the captain of a No. 1 Test team to field players on reputation? Over 400 wickets in Tests shouldn't guarantee a Test place if you are consistently bowling badly. Despite that, Dhoni kept playing Harbhajan, perhaps even knowing that his 'once-premier' off-spinner isn't fully fit, and maybe past his prime.

His wicketkeeping represents a 'schoolboy'. Yes, he was never a great wicketkeeper. But like cutting his locks from Musharraf's favourite to going bald for a photoshoot as ODI champion, Dhoni had improved as a keeper. But bad from with the bat and baffling moves as captain have had an impact on his gloves, which are fumbling the ball more than collecting it.

Saturday may well turn out to be Dhoni's last day as the skipper of No. 1 Test side, but it's not the end of the world for India's second most successful skipper. If anything, it's a moment in Dhoni's career when he needs to look back and check what went wrong.