MS Dhoni’s knock is a big positive for India: Sourav Ganguly

Over the last few months, MS Dhoni has been a recipient of flak as he hasn’t been able to deliver with the bat in hand. His strike-rate has also dropped significantly and he’s merely a pale shadow of his glorious past. However, he has had a couple of decent outings in the first two ODIs against Aaron Finch’s Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) and the Adelaide Oval respectively.

In the first match, the Jharkhand-born notched 51 runs but took 96 balls. It came at a time when the visitors were in dire straits having lost three early wickets, including that of Indian captain Virat Kohli. However, the 37-year-old batsman came into his own in Sydney and stayed until the very end, helping India win the encounter by six wickets to level the three-match series 1-1.

Dhoni played a great inning

In the first ball of the last over, Dhoni deposited left-armer Jason Behrendroff over long-on to level the scores after which he took a single to take India to victory with four balls left. Meanwhile, Sourav Ganguly, the former Indian captain, praised Dhoni. Furthermore, he mentioned that the knock is a massive confidence-booster both for Dhoni and the Indian team management.

“Two things are to be seen from this innings. When he (Dhoni) was playing with Virat, he played differently and when he was out, he changed his game. When Kohli plays, he takes the pressure off the other player but once he got out, he took the game forward,” Ganguly was quoted as saying in IndiaTV’s show Cricket Ki Baat.

“Dhoni played a great inning after a long time. It is a big positive for India that he played like that and this will give him confidence. The team management will also get confidence from this that they were not wrong to back him,” the 46-year-old added.

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