There have been many occasions when the Indian National Cricket Team has missed the presence of their former captain, MS Dhoni. His relaxed demeanour and observing quality boost confidence within the team. Now, it has now been approved by Suresh Raina as well who believes that Dhoni is the captain of Virat Kohli during the match.
The Indian cricketer has played under Dhoni for India and the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Known for big shots, Raina believes that Dhoni is vital for Team India at the World Cup 2019. He firmly calls him as the captain of Kohli who is captain in books.
“On paper, he’s not the captain. On the ground he’s the captain for Virat I think,” says Raina.
Raina has been in-and-out of the national side of the team ever since his injury. And soon his form fizzed away from the long format of the game. However, Raina has been performing exceptionally well in the IPL for Dhoni-led franchise CSK. He has scored above 400 in all of the seasons, barring two, and is regarded as ‘Mr. IPL’.
Raina Regards Dhoni as the Captain of the Captains
Raina now is having some family time in the Netherlands while the Kohli-led India is gearing up for the showpiece event. In an interview during his holidays with family, he calls Dhoni as the ‘captain of the captain’ who still oversees and co-ordinates with the players.
“His role is still the same. He communicates with the bowlers from behind the stumps, coordinates the field placements.
After Ricky Ponting, Dhoni is the second most successful captain to lead his team to most wins in ODI matches. From 2007 to 2017, he has played 200 ODI games where he led the team to 117 wins which is the second highest number of wins after Ponting’s 165 ODI wins.
The helicopter shot inventor has led India to win the 2007 ICC World T20, the 2010 and 2016 Asia Cups, the 2011 Cricket World Cup and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy respectively.
“He’s the captain of the captains. Virat feels confident when Dhoni is behind the stumps. He has always acknowledged that,” Raina told PTI.
Kohli-led India is the Best Team to Win the World Cup 2019: Raina
Dhoni has retired from Test Cricket for India in 2014 and walks away from ODI and T20 captaincy in 2017. Despite this, he still performs the same duty of communicating and observing necessary changes to be made during a match. There have been several occasions when skipper Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri has reiterated the importance of Dhoni. His presence boosts the team’s confidence and gives Kohli the third sight on the match.
Kohli, who will be playing his first World Cup as captain of the team will be looking up to Dhoni’s guidance.
Meanwhile, he also will be the centre of attraction for the Indian fans because of his outstanding batting performance. Kohli has been remarkable in all formats of cricket and is regarded as the best batsman in the world. And with him leading the team, Raina claims it as the best team to win the World Cup.
“He is a confident player, captain and a team player. It’s a very big World Cup for him. He knows his role well. He needs to give confidence to his players. Everything looks in our favour. The intent has to be positive. This is the best team to win the World Cup,” Raina said.
Raina believes loosing in the Warm-up was a Very Good Thing that Happened to India
India played its first warm-up match against New Zealand on 25th May and ended up losing by six wickets. Referring to the match, Raina suggested that India needs to take care of the left-arm pacer attacks. He believes that if dealt with this issue, India has nothing else to worry about.
Meanwhile, he says that the losing warm-up match was necessary and useful for the team as now they can regroup and find the missing coordination issue.
“We just need to be careful against the left-arm fast bowlers. If you see the last few years, we are losing a lot of wickets to the left arm pacers. Be it Mohammed Aamir or Wahab Riaz of Pakistan, Boult, Mitchell (Starc) — all have done well against India. Rest everything looks fine with this team,” said Raina.
“Now we can regroup and find the combination. I feel it’s a very good thing to have happened to the Indian team,” he added.
This World Cup will have a round-robin format where a team will play against all nine teams. This means each team will get a maximum of nine chances to make it to the semi-finals. And Raina believes India will most certainly the semi-finalists.
Thus, India starts their campaign from June 5, against South Africa. But before that, they will look forward to plugging in the loopholes at the earliest.