Sachin Tendulkar slams MS Dhoni after his sluggish knock during India vs Afghanistan match | Cricket World Cup 2019

Sachin Tendulkar slams MS Dhoni after he played a slowish innings during the India vs Afghanistan World Cup match at Southampton

Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar has slammed the veteran wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni for his sluggish innings against Afghanistan at The Rose Bowl in Southampton. Afghanistan gave the Indian Team a reality check after the latter just managed to defend the paltry total of 224/8 posted on the board (by 11 runs) against a team that had lost all its previous five matches in the ongoing Cricket World Cup 2019.

While the world praised the Indian bowling attack for holding on to their nerve till the very end, Sachin Tendulkar has now opened up on the Indian batting that failed to live up to their potential at Southampton.

A great game of cricket, arguably the best of the #CWC19.
Loved the spirit shown by Afghanistan.
Bumrah & Shami were absolutely amazing & Chahal getting Rashid’s wicket was the difference at the end. Crucial spells by Hardik & Kuldeep.
It was a good test for 🇮🇳.#INDvAFG pic.twitter.com/dbYJNMQKdt

— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) June 22, 2019

And he laid emphasis on the rather slow innings that MS Dhoni played during the middle overs, especially after Indian skipper Virat Kohli was back in the dressing room.

What did Tendulkar comment?

MS Dhoni, played with previously adopted tactics, to progress the innings through maximum rotation of strike and making sure that no further damage is done. But, his tactics backfired as he had chewed up too many and perished when he had to go for the big hits. His innings thus, ended in the 45th over at the individual score of a paltry 28 off 52 deliveries.

Tendulkar commented on the same and opined that senior players like Dhoni should have played with a more positive intent. He was of the view that despite a good Afghanistan bowling attack, a team cannot score only 119 runs in 34 overs.

“MS Dhoni is a senior player and should show positive intent. Afghanistan’s bowling is good but you can’t score only 119 runs in 34 overs. He did not show any positive intent against Afghanistan”, commented the Master Blaster.

He also added that although Dhoni has the ability to go for the big hits, he cannot chew up so many deliveries.

“MS Dhoni has the ability to hit but yesterday his strike rotation was not good. He faced too many dot balls and this hampered a strong finish for India. The intent could have been much better by the middle order batsmen. I believe MS Dhoni needs to up his ante when it comes to strike rotation in next matches,” Sachin Tendulkar said.