Sourav Ganguly reveals his middle-order for team India ahead of WC 2019

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly is quite pleased with the way the Indian team recently thumped Australia down under. Team India registered their first-ever bilateral ODI series win after registering a thrilling victory in the Melbourne ODI. One of the chief architects of the team’s victory was veteran cricketer MS Dhoni. Dhoni scored three fifties in as many number of games to be adjudged the Player of the Series.

Ganguly lauded the efforts of the wicketkeeper-batter and noted that the fans saw this version of Dhoni after a long time. Ganguly cited that the performances would boost the spirit of MS Dhoni as the Indian team prepares for the World Cup. He added that albeit batting at a sluggish pace in one odd inning, Dhoni did manage to spend time in the middle, and that helped his confidence in the matches that followed.

“The way Dhoni has batted in the series. We have seen him play like this after a long time. India have played well and again won a series 2-1 after being 1-0 down. A lot was said about Dhoni after the Adelaide ODI, where he batted slow but we spoke about how the innings will give him confidence and that is exactly what happened,” Sourav Ganguly quoted in IndiaTV’s show Cricket Ki Baat.

Number 4 ideal for MS Dhoni?

Commenting further on the same note, Sourav Ganguly added that MS Dhoni should continue to bat at number 4. He remarked that coming in early in the batting lineup provides the much needed time for Dhoni to settle in and absorb the pressure. Ganguly’s middle-order for the Indian team in the coming days looks quite solid – Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, and Dinesh Karthik.

“I think Kedar will play No.5 and Dhoni will play at No.4. So I think India will go with this combination only because you gave someone an opportunity and they grabbed it. So Kohli at 3, Dhoni 4 and Jadhav at 5 followed by Karthik. No.4 is right for Dhoni because it gives him time to settle in and score runs and build an innings. So this combination is fine,” said the former Indian captain.

Another big takeaway

Another positive that the Indian side had from the final ODI of the series was the way Kedar Jadhav staged his comeback. The veteran cricketer scored an unbeaten 61 to see India over the line. He not only provided the perfect support to Dhoni but also hit the odd boundary to ease off the pressure from his partner.

“A good thing that India got from this match was Kedar Jadhav. When India was in a fix, he took the game out along with Dhoni. He had not batted in the series.. He had not played a practice match and was just batting in the nets. So scoring runs in the middle makes a difference and he will take confidence from this,” said an optimistic Ganguly.

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