'Miss you Mahi' - Fans want MS Dhoni back in team after series loss against New Zealand

With Team India suffering another defeat at the hands of New Zealand in an ODI, the fans have once again called for the inclusion of MS Dhoni in the team. The Virat Kohli-led side lost the second ODI by 22 runs in Auckland to concede the three-match series. India had failed to defend 347 in the first ODI and then failed to chase down 273 in the do-or-die clash.

Virat Kohli’s decision to bowl first seemed to have backfired when New Zealand made a great start. At one stage, they were comfortably placed at 142 for 1 before suffering a collapse to find themselves eight down for 197. However, in-form Ross Taylor and debutant Kyle Jamieson stitched together an unbeaten partnership of 76 runs to take their team to a good total of 273 for 8.

In reply, India were all out for 251 in the 49th over. The top-order failed to get going before Shreyas Iyer and Ravindra Jadeja scored fighting fifties. Navdeep Saini also played a fine cameo of 45 runs but it did not make any difference as New Zealand held their nerves to win the game and clinch the series with a match to go.

Fans call for MS Dhoni’s return

As India failed to chase down the 274-run target, the fans did not waste any time in taking to Twitter and call for the return of MS Dhoni in the team. The former India skipper has not played any competitive game since the World Cup semifinal in July. As of now, there is still no clarity over when will he return to the team. In fact, there are also apprehensions that he might not earn another recall from the national team.

The BCCI recently dropped him from the central contracts list, thus further putting a question mark on his career. To make things worse, outgoing chief selector MSK Prasad said that the selectors are moving on from Dhoni and would try out youngsters.

On the other hand, head coach Ravi Shastri said that Dhoni is likely to retire from ODIs soon but could play this year’s T20 World Cup if he performs well in the IPL. But the fans made it clear that they still want the legendary batsman in the ODI side and took to Twitter to express their feelings.

Here are some of the reactions: