Asia Cup 2018 Finals: What it means for MS Dhoni
India take on Bangladesh at the Dubai International Stadium on Friday in the final of the 2018 Asia Cup. India looks favourite on paper but you cannot bet against the wiry Bangladeshis, because on their day, they can spring a surprise or two.
Bangladesh come to the final on the back of their wonderful victory against Pakistan in a virtual semifinal where they defeated the Champions Trophy winners by 37 runs. Given a target of 240 to book a place in the final, Mustafizur Rahman and Co. stifled the Pakistani batting line-up and emerged winners at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
India, however, were halted by Afghanistan who tied the game against the subcontinental giants. Chasing a target of 253, India could make only 252. Although there were a couple of controversial decisions given by the umpires, India should have taken the game home with plenty to spare.
Wicketkeeper Mohammad Shahzad stroked a free-flowing century (124 in 116 balls with 11 fours and 7 sixes) and Mohammad Nabi hit an efficient 60 to set up the total for the Afghanistanis. India were well on course to win the game when Dinesh Karthik, KL Rahul and Ambati Rayudu set up the chase nicely but a late-order flounder led to them surrendering the game and accepting a tie.
Later, it was the controversial wickets of Dinesh Karthik and Mahendra Singh Dhoni became the talking points. Dhoni, with as much dignity as he could muster, said in the post-match presentation that he does not want to say anything on the umpiring decisions as he does not want to end up in trouble (speaking publicly on umpiring decisions can attract fines and even bans).
However, the wicketkeeper-batsman from Ranchi, who led India for the 200th time on Tuesday knows well that he needs to score big and play a crucial role if India are to win the Asia Cup final on Friday. In the three innings that he played at the Asia Cup, he has scores of 0, 33 and 8.
It might not be the perfect parameter to judge Dhoni's performance with the bat as India won all those games except the last one against Afghanistan. In a career which has seen 326 One Day Internationals played and 10087 runs scored, India still needs more from their former captain.
There has been a lot of talk regarding how the World Cup-winning captain has lost the Midas touch that he possessed and how his reflexes have slowed down with time. These suggestions only indicate that Dhoni is human, and although legions of cricket supporters and fans want to believe otherwise, that is the truth.
The question that the selectors and supporters of Indian cricket need to ask themselves is do they want Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the World Cup which begins in less than eight months? If India are convinced that they want to go with experience and not young blood, then surely Dhoni should stay till the tournament takes place in England and then take a call on his career.
Youngsters Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson, old war-horse Dinesh Karthik and even the versatile Naman Ojha (who, for the record, has close to 10,000 runs in first-class cricket but has played a solitary Test) are knocking at the doors, telling Dhoni that perhaps his time is up and notifying cricket supporters if they want to go without Dhoni in the marquee event.
Either way, the Asia Cup final could be a big indicator as to what India thinks and only a strong performance from the best finisher in the world would cement his place in the World Cup team. India needs to believe that Dhoni could be their man, yet again.