India’s World Cup-winning captain in both T20 and 50 overs format MS Dhoni has been under serious scrutiny for his inconsistent performance off-late and is also looking to make it until the 2019 World Cup. Dhoni who led India to the inaugural T20 World Cup back in 2007 in South Africa and the 50 overs World Cup glory after 28 long years, has been an influential figure for the Indian fans for over a decade now.
Dhoni has played 309 ODI’s for India and has scored 9,826 runs leaving him short by 174 runs of the 10000 runs milestone. If Dhoni reaches the milestone, he will become the first wicket-keeper batsman to do so. Dhoni retired from the Test format in 2014 after playing 90 Test matches and scoring 4876 runs.
Dhoni was given India’s captaincy in the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, and since then he has been regarded as one of the greatest Indian captains. Many former cricketers and officials have come out in support of the former Indian skipper and this time it’s the turn of Lal Chand Rajput who was India’s manager during the 2007 T20 World Cup.
Rajput has said that Dhoni is irreplaceable in many departments:
“To me, talks of him stepping down doesn’t sound logical because I don’t see any player doing so well that he could replace Dhoni in T20s. Also, I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t continue playing till he wants. He is as fit as anybody else in the team, and he is a brilliant runner between the wickets other than being very sharp while keeping. And above all, he is still one of the best finishers.”
Rajput also went on to say that Dhoni is one of the greatest readers of the game and no one has a foresight like him:
“At present, we don’t have anyone in the team who has a sharper brain than Dhoni’s. He is a superb thinker and is always two steps ahead of others.”
According to Rajput, Dhoni’s last over experiment of throwing the ball to Joginder Sharma in the 2007 World Cup final was a well-thought decision and wasn’t just a fluke:
“People may feel that giving the last over to Joginder was a fluke decision. But I know that it was a well thought out one. Many didn’t notice but he had tried Joginder in the last over of one of the earlier matches too (against Australia in the semis). In one of the team meetings, Dhoni told me that Joginder can be crucial in the last over as he can bowl good yorkers. But more than that, Joginder keeps a straight face all the time, making it impossible for others to know whether he is under pressure or not.”
Rajput is currently the coach of Assam Ranji Trophy team, but he also coached Afghanistan national team earlier this year and had said that their hunger to do well is the secret to their recent success:
“I was glad to see their U-19 team winning the Asia Cup after beating Pakistan. During my tenure as the Afghan senior team coach, I had observed that they love the game very much. They come from a war-torn country and they find solace in cricket. Coaching the Afghanistan team was a big challenge for me, bigger than managing the Indian team for the first-ever T20 tournament. It was a different culture altogether for me, but after I spent some time there, I realised that their passion for the game is as intense as anybody else.”