CHENNAI:Despite India losing the third and final ODI to England, and along with it the series, Twitter was inundated with talks surrounding MS Dhoni. The wicketkeeper-batsman is no stranger to criticism but the last two games have seen Dhoni struggle to even rotate the strike.
It all started when the former skipper played an uncharacteristic slow innings at Lord’s, where he scored 37 off 59 balls. He was even jeered by the crowd during his knock. Even in the final ODI, he had to adopt a cautious approach because of the fall of wickets at the other end. He had the most dot balls among all Indian batsmen.
He has been struggling for some time now but a good IPL was heralded as the start of Dhoni getting back to his best for the country. But it has been anything but a smooth ride.
Despite his lacklustre outings, skipper Virat Kohli came out in his defence. But former India captain Sourav Ganguly feels the Dhoni is under a lot of pressure and needs to perform to justify his place in the team. “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 present, he is not turning it around enough and this has been going on for more than an year,” said Ganguly.
The constant shuffling in the middle-order and lack of clarity with regards to that has also not helped matters for India. Another telling statistic is the fact that strike rate of India’s batsmen from No 4 to No 6 has only been 66.66, second-lowest in any series in the last five years.
India have struggled to find a decent fit for the No 4 position. And Ganguly had his say on the issue. “Eyes closed, I will have Rahul at four. Your top four have to be the best players and you got to persist with them. Go and speak to Rahul and say ‘we will give you 15 games’. Just go and play. The team management are not giving enough opportunities to Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane. These are your two best batsmen. You have to have solid number four and five. Then you decide between Dinesh Karthik or MS at six and Hardik Pandya at seven.”