After MS Dhoni failed to accelerate the scoring in the second match of the ongoing T20I series against New Zealand, a section of fans and media criticised him and suggested that he should stop playing T20I cricket for India because he is no more the hitter and finisher he used to be a couple of years ago.
MS Dhoni’s former teammates Ajit Agarkar and Aakash Chopra also made strong points against him and said that India should look for more attacking options in T20I cricket.
“India needs to look at other options in T20 cricket for sure. ODI cricket, at the moment, they [Team India] seem to be happy with the role he [Dhoni] is playing. When he was captain, it was fine. But as a pure batsman, will India miss him? I don’t think so. In T20 cricket, it’s a lot easier to make the transition. There is enough experience apart from MS Dhoni now,” Ajit Agarkar said in an interview to ESPNcricinfo.com.
“India should look to groom youngsters in T20s so that someone could play Dhoni’s role in 2020 as most probably he would not be around in 2020,” Aakash Chopra said.
VVS Laxman, who is a part of the commentary team, also criticised Dhoni’ inability to rotate the strike and allow the run rate to keep mounting.
“In T20s, MS Dhoni’s role is at No 4. He requires more time to get his eye in and then do the job. But today [Saturday] was a classic example because when Virat Kohli was batting, Dhoni had to give the strike to Kohli. Kohli’s strike rate was 160, MS Dhoni’s strike rate was 80. That’s not good enough when India was chasing a mammoth total,” VVS Laxman said during the post match analysis.
But, Dhoni’s teammate and one of the most important members of Indian cricket team, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has a completely different view of this.
During a press conference before the third T20I, Bhuvneshwar Kumar addressed the media and spoke on variety of topics ranging from his death bowling to his partnership with Jasprit Bumrah.
But, the biggest highlight of presser was the way he shut down the reporter who asked him about MS Dhoni’s retirement from T20I cricket. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who is popularly known as Bhuvi, said that fans and media should look at his records and numbers. He also added that the team management is not bothered with happened in the second T2OI and everybody knowns he is a legend.
This is what Bhuvneshwar Kumar said:
“If you look at his record, nobody (team management) is really bothered. Whatever he has done, he has been doing well, he knows he is a legend. Whatever he is doing, it is benefitting the Indian team. No one has any doubts about him,” Bhuvneshwar Kumar told the reporters in a press conference.
