MS Dhoni’s knocks during the ODI series against England have attracted a lot of attention, as the great man hasn’t been able to play free flowing cricket and has been stifled by the spinners during the middle overs.
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Rotating the strike and going for quick singles has always been a hallmark of Dhoni’s batting, one that he has thrived on during those crucial middle overs.
However, his inability to do that in the recently concluded England ODI series has left the Indian team management searching for answers.
Dhoni has been trying to take the game deep by taking his time initially and hoping to unleash himself in the final few overs.
That hasn’t quite happened though, as Dhoni has found it tough to get going during the final few too, hence, putting a lot of pressure on the other batsmen.
In the Cricbuzz show, Gautam Gambhir did not hold back his criticism for Dhoni’s slow innings and his mindset, wherein, he taking a lot of time initially is putting a lot of pressure on the other batsmen.
“Dhoni is playing a lot of dot balls and is putting a lot of pressure on other batsmen. He needs to be more pro-active. Apart from (Adil) Rashid and Moeen (Ali’s) good bowling, a lot has to because of MS’s batting (Talking on India’s poor performance). I haven’t seen MS bat like this a couple of years ago.
“This is something he needs to work on. He needs to be more pro-active against spin and clearly, he hasn’t been at his best. Normally, MS Dhoni is someone who takes his time, but he makes up for it. But that has been missing in the last two games. If MS had stayed till the 50th over, India could’ve easily scored over 270 or 280. If you’re taking time, you have to make sure you’re staying till the end,” Gambhir said.
Zaheer han was a a little sympathetic with Dhoni, as he felt that Dhoni had to play the waiting game, as wickets kept tumbling around him.
“He walked out today with a positive intent, but what didn’t work in his favor was that Kohli got out soon. Raina too didn’t settle in well and those two wickets put pressure on Dhoni to play a bit more responsibly. Hardik just got going, but he was dismissed for a peach of a delivery,” Zak said.
How should MS Dhoni approach his innings in the one-day format?
