With India losing to chase 197 in the second T20 against the Kiwis at Rajkot fingers are once again pointed at MS Dhoni. Former Indian cricketers have now started to express concerns over Dhoni’s place in the T20’squad and this has become a subject of debate once again.
Clearly, MS Dhoni who walked into bat in the 10th over in the T20 at Rajkot seemed to be struggling with timing. He was unable to soak the pressure and share the responsibility of the chase with Virat Kohli. MS Dhoni rather reflected his pressure to cope up with the required run rate on Virat Kohli who looked solid on the other end. As was expected, Dhoni’s failures to get going came down as extra pressure on Virat who then got out in the quest to do too much in too little time. When Kohli was going at a strike rate of 160 then Dhoni was struggling with a strike rate of 80.
Former Indian cricketers like VVS Laxman, Akash Chopra and Ajit Agarkar then went about expressing concerns that India must start looking for alternatives. Their argument was however with respect to the 2020 T20 World Cup. Former cricketers feel that team India should look for the veteran’s replacement as he wouldn’t be around after the 2019 World Cup.
Ajit Agarkar even went on to say, “ I think Dhoni should bid adieu to the shortest format of the game and vacant a position for a youngster”
He said that in T20s Dhoni has been battling for a while and that in T20s it’s easy to move on. He believes that it’s time that India now needs to groom a youngster with keeping the 2020 T20 World Cup in sight. Ajit Agarkar also questioned Dhoni’s finishing skills by raising the question, “how often does one get to play 10 overs in T20 cricket?”
The other former cricketer, Akash Chopra too emphasised on the need of looking for young alternatives keeping the 2020 T20 World Cup in mind. He said, Everton keeps saying that Dhoni will be there for the 2019 World Cup. Do we know that there’s a T20 World Cup in 2020?” He further added that while Dhoni plays the 50 overs format 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.
To some extent we must agree to these opinions because they do make a lot of sense.
VVS Laxman too sings in agreement
As Agarkar and Akash Chopra maintained that its time for Dhoni to bid adieu to the shortest format, Very Very Special Laxman too nodded in agreement. Even VVS said that Dhoni must be an integral part of the ODI team but he should now take a call on playing the T20s.
Bottom line being that the former cricketers have concerns about the 2020 T20 World Cup and they feel that Mahi should hang his boots in the interest of the team.
