MS Dhoni is still tremendous value to the team: Sunil Gavaskar

When India lost the first match of the ODI series in Sydney, MS Dhoni was heavily trolled for his slow innings. Some fans even questioned the place of former Indian captain in the ODI set up. The legendary wicketkeeper-batsman rolled back the clock in Adelaide to win the match for Team India. India needed 299 runs to win the match but Virat Kohli put India in a great position.

When Indian captain got out on 104, India needed to hold their nerves to avoid further hiccups in the chase. MS Dhoni did just that as he got together with Dinesh Karthik to take India over the line. This innings will serve as a confidence booster for the right-handed batsman who has been struggling for form in the last few matches. Sunil Gavaskar gave his backing to MS Dhoni as he highlighted his importance behind the stumps.

He admitted that it is impossible to judge what is going through a batsmen’s mind but Dhoni’s experience helps him in reading batsmen’s mind to an extent. The Indian wicketkeeper is more than happy to share this knowledge with the bowlers which help the team in stopping the opposition. Gavaskar claimed that reading batsmen’s mind is the best way of stopping them from hurting the bowlers.

Gavaskar hailed field placing of MS Dhoni

“He keeps telling the bowlers to bowl a particular delivery, what a batsman is planning to do. He has a sense of what a batsman is thinking. Obviously, nobody can read precisely what is going on in a batsman mind…the best way to help bowlers, the best way to help field placements for a captain or wicketkeeper is to put himself in that particular batsman’s place or mind. What the batsman is looking to do now…is he looking to get out of jail kind of shot? Is he looking to push the ball around for a single? ” Sunil Gavaskar said as quoted by India Today.

The former Indian opening batsman pointed out that Virat Kohli has to field in deep during death overs as he is one of the best fielders in the world. So it is not easy to hold regular conversations with the bowlers and adjust the field placements. This is where Dhoni steps in, as Kohli has complete faith in Dhoni’s understanding of the game to make little adjustments.

“These are the kind of things where Dhoni helps the bowlers and of course with the field placing because Virat is so important in the deep in the final overs when he saves those two runs diving around, takes magnificent catches in the deep. So it’s not possible for Virat to maybe have a conversation with the bowlers or maybe to make adjustments to the square fielders. That is where Virat has complete faith and trust in Dhoni to make those little bit of adjustments for him,” Sunil Gavaskar added

The former Indian captain argued that MS Dhoni is very important to the team and fans should be patient with him. “That value you cannot calculate at all. My prayer is to please leave the gentleman alone and he will continue to do well. He is also not getting younger. So the consistency you might have at a younger age will obviously not be there and you have to bear with that. Bear with that little inconsistency. But he’s still tremendous value to the team.” Gavaskar further added.

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