Sourav Ganguly wants Virat Kohli to send MS Dhoni up the order

Team India pulled off a miraculous victory at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur on Sunday and the credit should largely go to pacers Ashish Nehra and Jasprit Bumrah. The 23-year-old Bumrah bowled an exceptional final over where he conceded only 2 runs to hand India a thrilling 5 runs victory to keep the 3 match series alive going into Bangalore tomorrow.Despite the victory, Virat Kohli will be a worried man ahead of the decider as the batting line-up has failed on consecutive occasions. Former India captain Sourav Ganguly feels that Kohli should definitely experiment with the Indian batting line-up in the decider in Bangalore.

“I think India needs a change in the batting order to be honest in the final game going into Bangalore. I think Manish Pandey should bat at No.3 and Raina can probably come down at No.6 and depending on a number of overs played. MS Dhoni should go up the order. I have been saying this for a long time maybe 4-5 years now that in T20s Dhoni should be batting much higher and playing more freely. But the team management has got to decide this and take a call,” Ganguly was quoted as saying by India Today.

Dhoni has been an exceptional limited overs batsman but despite this fact, he hasn’t scored an international T20 fifty for India and the question definitely arises that has Dhoni’s talent being wasted in the shortest format of the game. Despite playing 75 matches and captaining in most of them, he hasn’t scored a single fifty. He has emphasised on the fact for a long time that he wants to finish off matches. During his tenure as a captain India has 43 matches but at the same time have also lost 29 matches.

Also read: Sourav Ganguly is tired of the ongoing saga with the BCCI

“I don’t believe in this word finisher and we keep hearing about it. You bat 20 overs and you finish. If you are set then you can be a better finisher than when you come in at the 17th or 18th over without a ball next to your name. So I think the word finisher is just overrated in cricket and I think it is time that hopefully the team management takes this up and try and give our best players the maximum number of deliveries,” explained Ganguly.

Former Indian spinner Nikhil Chopra echoed the same views and said Dhoni going up the order will definitely help them in the deciding TI at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. “I believe Dhoni has got to be batting at No.5, you have got to see the number of deliveries and the partnerships in the innings and maybe even push him to No.4 if needed. Dhoni understands and reads the game really well and you need someone like him in the middle order,” Chopra was quoted as saying by India Today.