MS Dhoni is half a captain of the Indian team: Bishan Singh Bedi

Team India missed the presence of MS Dhoni in the fourth ODI in Mohali. They failed to defend a mammoth total of 359 runs as Australia chased down the target in excess of 350 for the first time in the fifty-over format. Even the crowd chanted Dhoni’s name when Rishabh Pant missed Ashton Turner’s stumping chance which eventually cost India the game. The former Indian captain Bishan Singh Bedi also felt the same as he termed Dhoni as half captain of the team.

Virat Kohli, with the things going out of hands, lost his cool as well during the second half of the chase. With him needed to field in the deep at long off, there was no one controlling the game from close to the 22 yards. Normally, Dhoni takes over the mantle in the closing stages of the innings and the same had happened during the second ODI when the things went down the wire.

Bedi also pointed out that Kohli needs Dhoni on the field and his absence was felt in Mohali. Rishabh Pant felt the pressure and he made mistakes when it mattered the most. “I am nobody to comment but we all are wondering that why Dhoni is being rested and his absence was felt yesterday, behind the stumps, with the bat and on field also. He is almost half a captain,” he was quoted as saying by the Times of India at an event.

Dhoni is not getting younger

“Dhoni is not getting any younger, he is no spring chicken either but the team needs him. He has a calming influence on the side. The captain needs him by his side, he is visibly rough without him. It is not a good sign,” the 72-year-old added.

Bishan Singh Bedi also expressed his disappointment over the resting and experimenting of the players and urged . about living in the present. He also cautioned the team over some of the cricketers getting injured in the IPL ahead of the all-important World Cup.

“I would personally like them to live in the present. World Cup is still two and a half months away. Just play the game. For World Cup, we have been experimenting in the last one year and I am not happy with that at all,” Bedi further said.

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