Mahendra Singh Dhoni in danger of overstaying his time as captain: Ian Chappell

New Delhi: Former Australian skipper Ian Chappell is known to speak his mind out on all matters related to cricket.

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The Australian calls it like he sees it and is widely respected as an insightful cricket pundit.

He is a sought after cricket expert and a widely read columnist.

On Sunday, India's ODI skipper MS Dhoni was the target of Chappell's ESPNCricinfo piece titled "The dangers of overstaying your time as captain".

"The current Indian side is badly in need of new ideas and different stimulation; when the opposition has racked up nearly 1300 runs in four ODI innings, it's not all down to flat pitches and wayward bowling," wrote Chappell.

While the 72-year-old conceded that Indian bowlers were partly to blame for the team's ordeal in the ODI series against Australia, however he felt that Dhoni's field placing was primarily employed to contain opposition batsman.

"When Dhoni started out in the job he was a shrewd captain in all forms of the game and experienced widespread success. However, a captain overstaying his time can have the same debilitating effect on a team as appointing the wrong player for the job in the first place," he further added.

Dhoni led India to three successive ODI series defeats in 2015. In fact, after the series win over Sri Lanka at home in 2014, the Men in Blue have enjoyed no success in the 50-over format.

The wicketkeeper-batsman's batting form has not been encouraging either. The 34-year-old's repeated failures to strike the ball cleanly in the slog overs led to India's falling 20-30 runs short in the first two ODIs.

Dhoni has himself admitted to not being able to score runs freely in the early part of his innings.

With no major ODI commitment for Team India for a large part of 2016, discussion over Dhoni's future will be a recurring theme in the days ahead.