World Cup 2019: Does Dhoni's knock against West Indies deserve all the criticism it has been getting from Indian fans?
Mahendra Singh Dhoni's knock against West Indies drew a lot of criticism from the Indian fans. But was that the correct thing to do given the situation, or has it just become a trend to bash Dhoni for whatever he does?
A similar situation was noticed against Afghanistan, where he couldn't get going for a long time and was rightly accused of showing no intent. But the circumstances in the West Indies match were decidedly different.
Dhoni came in to bat at No. 6 after Kedar Jadhav got out. India were 140-4 after 28.5 overs at that stage, scoring at 4.91 per over.
Usually Dhoni walks out to bat at No. 5 and Jadhav comes in at 6. But it was different today and India were doing alright when Dhoni walked in and Virat Kohli was at the other end.
Kohli got out after 38.2 overs, and his 10-over association with Dhoni saw only three boundaries being hit. The run-rate also dipped to 4.71 by the time Hardik Pandya joined hands with Dhoni.
In such a situation, Dhoni took the safer route and decided to play defensively, but there were several reasons behind that.
- Had he got out early, Kohli would have had the burden yet again of anchoring the innings single-handedly.
- Hardik Pandya was the only one left who could genuinely bat, and he too is a batsman who likes to attack.
- Had Dhoni got out at that stage, the tailenders would have got exposed very early and India wouldn't have managed to put up a fighting total on the board.
- After Kohli got out, the fact that Dhoni opted to play defensively allowed Pandya to take on the role of the aggressor.
- Once Pandya was gone, Dhoni took charge and scored 18 off 8 balls and ended with 56* off 61.
- The fact that he stayed till the very end allowed India to end with a respectable total of 268 on a pitch which was doing a fair bit.
While the plan worked well for India and they managed to win the game convincingly, there were still some phases where Dhoni could've done better. The new Dhoni has become very conservative in his approach and struggles a lot against the spinners. That comes down to lack of intent and a diminishing aggression.
There were a few factors that took away from Dhoni's innings:
- He could have shown more intent earlier in the innings, instead of leaving the flourish for the last over.
- Rotation of strike was totally absent. That's an area where he could've done better.
- Dhoni's methods look good when they work out - as they did today - but they can easily fail too.
The lack of intent against Fabien Allen from the Indian batsmen, particularly Dhoni, also drew some criticism from former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag.
India did manage to win this game, which doused the flames rather quickly. But the question can still be asked: what if India had failed to defend this total or failed to win the game against Afghanistan, where Dhoni struggled on his way to 28 (52) before getting out to Rashid Khan?
There's no easy answer to that. But it has to be said that Dhoni's approach against West Indies doesn't deserve criticism as he did what any smart batsman would have done. The experience of the calm head showed, and resulted in an Indian win.
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