Five All-Rounders who could prove MS Dhoni wrong
Limited-overs cricket in India is in ailing health. Ailing is perhaps an overstatement, but for a nation that for years set the tone in the ODI format for the world is perhaps lagging behind a bit to teams like Australia, New Zealand and England with their fluid batting lineups and futuristic approach to the game. MS Dhoni’s captaincy, and his field placement strategies in conditions such as these have repeatedly come under the scanner throughout his ten-year long captaincy stint, but have been glossed over with numerous Test and One-Day match victories in the subcontinent, where the spinners have dismantled sides in helpful conditions. Dhoni’s insistence on playing two spinners on these flat pitches has backfired twice, and his batting has been on the wane for at least three years now.But above all, perhaps the most disappointing of Dhoni’s traits as captain is the utter lack of faith in his bowlers. His likely successor and current test captain, Virat Kohli is the polar opposite in this regard, as he empowers his bowlers with confidence, and allows them to bowl possibly wicket-taking deliveries with good, attacking fields. Dhoni allows matches, and oppositions to slowly drift along in the middle overs with his spinners, but on pitches like these, when they don’t fire, his captaincy looks incompetent and lazy. Dhoni, and India, have pined for a fast-bowling all-rounder over the years to give the team some balance. This is a list of a few seam-bowling all-rounders in the Indian domestic setup at present, who have performed consistently well, and possibly have a chance of filling that number 6/number 7 slot in the Indian lineup, and maybe proving Dhoni wrong.
#1 RISHI DHAWAN
Rishi Dhawan made his first-class debut over six years ago for Himachal Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy, but at 25, still remains one of India’s youngest and brightest all-rounder prospects. He has been consistently ignored for selection over the last few years, even though he was Indian domestic cricket’s best fast bowling all rounder by a distance.
Over the course of his first-class career, he has amassed 220 wickets at 25.8 and has a 40+ batting average with four hundreds batting at five for Himachal. His List A statistics are similarly exceptional, with a batting average of 39, and a bowling average of 31. Dhawan even returned decent figures in T20s he played for the Kings XI Punjab in the IPL over the course of a few seasons.
Dhawan has had to compete, primarily, with Stuart Binny, whose credentials as an international cricketer are highly questionable, and has mediocre domestic numbers. But with Binny now out of the team, Dhawan received a call-up to the Indian squad for the ODIs against Australia and debuted in the game at the MCG, where he bowled admirably well but didn’t get an adequate chance with the bat. Despite his lack of pace, Dhawan can offer India a Chris Woakes-type all round option.