MS Dhoni’s poor performances in the ODI series against England has called upon a lot of criticism on the recently-turned 37-year-old. The wicket-keeper bat failed to get his innings going in the last two games, which has erupted in a lot of people scrutinizing his performance.
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India’s former skipper, Sourav Ganguly, could also not stay away from criticising the veteran, and revealed how he wants Dhoni to build the innings in the middle-order without playing a flurry of dot-balls.
With India’s top-order being blessed with talented and consistent players, India’s middle-order has not lived up to its expectations. India’s middle-order struggles have already caused a headache for the team management, and with Dhoni’s poor strike-rate of 70 in the last two games, the Indian innings got no concrete momentum from the 37-year-old’s innings.
In the 3rd ODI at Leeds, MSD took his innings deep, but failed to close it out, as he was dismissed in the 46th over to leave India struggling on 221 for 7. Eventually, the final score also proved to be insufficient to contain the English batting line-up.
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This forced Ganguly to come out against the former Indian skipper, claiming that he has not been able to turn the innings around for India like he used to. Dada also believes that Dhoni needs to work on the rotation of strike, as he is playing too many dot balls of late. With the 50-over World Cup nearing in 2019 in England, the Men in Blue needs to sort out their weaknesses.
“If Dhoni has got to play then he has got to get in a position where he keeps hitting. If it is 24-25 overs and he has got to build an innings, he is struggling at the moment. He may turn it around as he has been a great player for India but at the present, he is not turning it around enough and this has been going on for more than a year,” Dada spoke in his post-game analysis for the broadcaster.
India’s returning left-hand bat, Suresh Raina, also could not play a comprehensive innings, as he could only score 47 runs in the two innings he played. The CSK stalwart could only score 1 last night, and Ganguly believes that selectors should move on from him.
“With all due respect, I think there are better players around. He has played for a long period of time. He has got runs in ODIs, not many overseas, but India need to look ahead,” the charismatic Ganguly added.
