Will MS Dhoni Play Final T20I Of His Career Today?
Feb 27, 2019 at 6:14 PM
India are all set to play Australia in the second T20I of the series in Bengaluru today, in what could probably be the final T20I match of MS Dhoni’s career as well.
MS Dhoni is likely to take a call on his international career after 2019 World Cup and after today’s match, India do not play a T20I match for next five months.
Hence, it is unlikely that Dhoni will ever play a T20I game for India after today.
Also, he is surely not in the scheme of thing for next T20 World Cup that will be played in Australia next year. So it will be an opportunity for India to give chances to Rishabh Pant in T20Is ahead of World Cup to prepare him for the tournament.
Dhoni has not been in best of form in T20I format as well.
In past few years, his capability to bat at good pace has gone down. In the 1st T20I, his slow batting was on display as he consumed 37 ball to score 29* runs.
Although the situation demanded Dhoni to stay there for long but he failed to up the ante in the later overs, that saw India score 126/7 in 20 overs.
Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell defended Dhoni’s slow innings later.
During his innings, MS Dhoni had denied running between the wickets, which cost India 8-10 runs.
Considering Australia finished the game on the final ball of the match, the runs denied by Dhoni could have made a difference.
Moving forward, India are in a must-win situation as a defeat here will see India losing the series. The home team is expected to make at least two changes in the playing XI for the 2nd T20I.
Rohit Sharma could be rested for Shikhar Dhawan, who was rested for the 1st T20I.
In the second change, Umesh Yadav is expected to make way for Siddarth Kaul in the playing XI.
Apart from that, no other changes are expected to take place in the squad.