Dean Jones questions MS Dhoni’s spot: Former Australian cricketer is still not convinced with the sight of Dhoni playing ODIs for India.
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Former India captain and current wicket-keeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s stellar performance in the recently concluded ODI series against Australia saw him sealing chases for India yet again.
Known for his near-invincible skills of batting in the second innings, Dhoni had started to receive a lot of flak after a lean 2018, his worst year in terms of number of runs scored in ODIs.
After being declared as the ‘Man of the series’ for scoring 193 runs in three matches at an average of 193 and a strike rate of 73.10 including three half-centuries, Dhoni seems to have regained the trust of the fans back home after many of them were waiting for him to hang his boots.
Having last won it in 2011, it has taken Dhoni more than seven years to win another such award. With him winning it now, it has made people believe that he still has it in him to dominate the proceedings during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
Since Dhoni’s match-winning Adelaide innings, he has received approbation from varying corners. From his teammates in Dinesh Karthik, captain Virat Kohli and opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan to former cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar, Kris Srikkanth, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar, everyone has been throwing accolades on the 37-year old cricketer.
Despite all of this, former Australia batsman Dean Jones seemed unimpressed with the 37-old cricketer. For their commitment and aggression, Jones compared the Indian team to the West Indian team of the 1980s. However, he was at odds with the idea of playing Dhoni as a ‘finisher’.
“The main problem is Dhoni. He’s back in this team and the question is will India, if push comes to shove, play Rishabh Pant as just a batsman? India couldn’t be having a better journey for their World Cup campaign than what they are having now and they have got to make sure they finish off New Zealand as well. What would be the worst thing to ruin this would be to go out against the Black Caps and drop their guard,” Jones wrote in his column for The Times Of India.
“This was the greatest tour that India has ever had to Australia. The only blemish was probably the way they played in the Test match in Perth, but overall the great thing was that a lot of the boys played good overseas. Everyone did something on the tour to contribute,” he added about the Indian team.
