Player Battles: MS Dhoni versus Jos Buttler
After a dismal Test series and a long winter-break, England are back in India to fight it out in a three-match One-Day International series.
They won one and lost the other warm-up ties they featured in against India A but the real Test begins from tomorrow when they meet the Virat Kohli-led side at Pune.
While India would look to continue the domination, Eoin Morgan and his men would believe they will have their chances.
It will be also quite interesting to see how Mahendra Singh Dhoni goes about his business, days after stepping down as India’s limited overs captain. His performances will be quite crucial for the men-in-blue throughout the three matches.
On the other hand, England will heavily depend on their young wicket-keeper Jos Buttler to deliver and bail them out of tricky situations with his hard hitting skills.
Here at Sportskeeda we look at these two destructive individuals and analyse what they can do in the upcoming series.
#5 What do the stats say?
It is very obvious that an old warhorse like Dhoni will have extraordinary statistics, and yes he does have the numbers. For over a decade now, whenever India have needed him, he has delivered more often than not. The biggest example was in the 2011 World Cup final where he scored an unbeaten 90 to help his country win the quadrennial event.
There have also been many other instances when he has singlehandedly helped India get over the line. From 283 One-Dayers he has 9110 runs with the highest score of 183*. He averages 50.89 with nine hundred and 61 fifties. Dhoni also boasts of a strike-rate of 88.80.
Buttler, on the other hand, made his ODI debut in 2012. He has featured in 81 games till now, amassing 2217 runs at an average of 38.89. But he has a strike rate of 120.29, which is monstrous in any format of the game.