Moitrish Majundar, Kolkata:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is now known as 'Captain Cool' and 'Mr Dependable', is undergoing a tough time. In the World Cup being played in England, Dhoni has become a victim of criticism for his batting. In particular the manner in which Dhoni batted against England, he disappointed his fans and many former cricketers.
Dhoni has been considered one of the best finishers in the world of cricket. Earlier, as Dhoni used to open runs, unlike him, now he can be seen struggling to make runs quickly.
As soon as India started its mission for the 2019 World Cup, there was a lot to say about Dhoni. With the name of Dhoni, the longest is the pride of being India's captain. This is the last chance for 38-year-old wicketkeeper batsman Dhoni to play in the World Cup. But his performance in this World Cup so far has not been as if he would expect it.
In the match against Afghanistan, one of the weakest teams in the current World Cup, Dhoni scored a slow innings of 28 runs in 52 balls. He also had to hear a lot of criticism about this innings. Even Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar could not stop himself from saying that Dhoni's innings were very slow and he did not see a positive approach.
Dhoni also had all eyes on Dhoni in the match against England. But in the entire tournament, India had to face defeat in this match so far. India had to chase the score of 338 to win the match and in the last 5 overs India needed 71 runs. Then Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav were on the crease. India had five wickets left, but after the match ended, India were left behind by 31 runs.
In place of the best finisher, Dhoni has been battling to get the ball out of the boundary and speed up the run. Dhoni scored 41 not out off 32 deliveries. At the same time Jadhav scored 12 runs off 13 balls and not out. Both could add only 39 runs in the last five overs, in which he took 20 singles and played 7 dot balls.
In this World Cup, India has so far played 7 of its 8 matches, while one match was canceled due to rain. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has scored 223 runs in these 7 matches and his batting average of 32 runs.
Dhoni now appears to be struggling to find boundaries and increase the speed, especially when India is chasing the target.
In matches played after 2017, Dhoni is putting a boundary on average 19 balls for every face. However, in the matches in which India is the first batting, Dhoni is putting a boundary on average 9 of every 9 balls of the face.
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