Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been around for a while now. He has been one of the greatest players that India has ever produced and certainly one of the finest ODI players. It has been thirteen years since he arrived on the International scene.
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His career has been a combination of ups and downs but nevertheless is regarded as one of the legends of the modern game.
Captain Cool from Jharkhand has won everything that he could as a skipper, whether it be the T20 cricket, ODI cricket or in the longer format of the game.
He gave up his captaincy earlier this year in January, but still people see him as a captain because of the impact that he created with his calmness.
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He has been an icon and a role model both as player and person over the last decade.
The 36-year old wicket keeper batsman has been the best in the business with glove work over the years.
Slowly but steadily he found his name as the world’s best finisher in the last decade. There is no question about his fitness levels and one can’t question his ability to play the 2019 WC in respect to his fitness.
If he have look at his career stats in ODI cricket, he piled up 9496 runs at an outstanding average of 51.33 and an impressive strike rate of almost 90.
The major portion of his runs came under pressure while batting at 5, 6 and 7 positions. With these stats one can never question his cricketing abilities.
But in recent past, a lot of speculation has been raised about his batting, as he failed to take his team home on more than one occasion.
Right from the beginning of his career he has been a slow starter who unleashes big strikes at the end of the innings.
But in the last couple of years his strike rotation at the start of his innings has become very terrible which has added extra pressure on the team while chasing targets.
As he is unable to play to his potential, there are many doubts about his participation in the global event which is a couple of years from now.
None the less, being around these pressure situations for so long, there is some part of him who still believes that he could be at his best on his day.
Whatsoever, no one is better than the Jharkhand Dynamite in reading the situation of a game.
MS should think about the role he has to play in the side as the young all-rounder Hardik Pandya is proving himself to be a decent finisher.
The fact that is circling around the cricketing world is that the right –handed veteran should be used as a partnership builder in the middle of the innings and we know his smacking capabilities at the end of the innings if he is settled at the crease.
May be promoting MS up the batting order gives him the extra time that he needs to settle at the crease and then unleash his helicopter shots at the end of the innings.
With Jadhav and Hardik at the lower middle order MS should be played at No.4 as we know his ability to rebuild the innings in case of a collapse, if there is any.
MS may not be the brightest prospect in the current team but he out of all people knows how to pace the innings at the right time, chase a daunting total and snatch the victory right from the jaws of defeat.
However the Indian ODI squad without MS is unimaginable and definitely with the experience he provides to the team along with his leadership skills in high pressure situations, he is an important prospect for the Indian team.
The iconic person that he is, MSD should make a decision about his future based on what’s good for the team.
