MS Dhoni will be wanting to prove his critics wrong, says Gautam Gambhir

Out-of-favour Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir is confident that former captain MS Dhoni will bounce back and prove his critics wrong in spite of the 37-year-old going through a pale patch for a while now.

Gambhir, who last played for India against England in 2016, has pointed out that performance is the only criteria a player can be in the side irrespective of his age and Dhoni will be wanting to perform in the upcoming matches.

“Performance is the only criteria one can be part of a team. If you are not performing, you cannot be part of a team. Age doesn’t matter. I am sure Dhoni will be wanting to perform and prove the critics wrong,” Gambhir told Times Now.

Dhoni's poor run of form will give the Indian team management some headache as the middle-order looks fragile and with a veteran like Dhoni failing to rescue the team like he used to do in the past has not been doing any good to the struggling middle-order.

Dhoni's form has been on the decline since the end of the 2015 World Cup and in spite of averaging over 60 in 2017, Dhoni's batting abilities have cost the team more than it helped them. He is struggling to get going when he walks out to bat and is eating up a lot of deliveries in a bid to settle in.

Not many times he has cashed in on the starts and it has cost the team more. In 2018, he has played 15 matches and has scored 225 runs at an average of 28.12 with a strike-rate of 67.36, which is poor in modern-day cricket.

A lot of fans and former cricketers are in favour of Dhoni calling it a day but with the 2019 World Cup less than nine months away, it looks unlikely that the 2011 World Cup-winning captain will announce his retirement before the start of the tournament.