Time to look ahead of MS Dhoni as India’s wicketkeeper, believes Gautam Gambhir

Over the last few days, there have been talks about MS Dhoni’s position in the Indian team after their semi-final exit from the 2019 World Cup. Dhoni has been an indefatigable trooper for the Men in Blue at the highest level for over a decade and a half but hasn’t been at his very best of late. At the age of 38, Dhoni won’t be travelling with the Indian team for the tour of the West Indies, which is scheduled to get underway on August 3.

The team management has mentioned that Dhoni will be a part of the transition process even as Rishabh Pant will be preferred as India’s first-choice wicketkeeper. In the meantime, Gautam Gambhir, who retired from all forms of cricket last year, said that it’s time to groom players for the future.

Gambhir calls for being practical than emotional

Gambhir, the former Indian cricketer, feels that it’s now vital to prepare the next keeper for the next World Cup four years down the line. He said that even Dhoni applied the same tactics when the latter said that Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and himself can’t play together in Australia.

“It’s important to look into the future. And when Dhoni was the skipper, he invested in the future. I remember Dhoni saying in Australia that me, Sachin and Sehwag can’t play the CB series together as the grounds were big. He wished for young players for the World Cup. It’s necessary to take practical decisions than being emotional,” Gambhir was quoted as saying in TV9 Bharatvarsh.

“And it’s time to groom the youngsters. Be it Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan or any other wicketkeeper, whoever is believed to have the potential should be made the wicket-keeper. Give him chances for one and half-years and if he doesn’t perform, then others should be tried out as well. Then one would get to know who the keeper for the next World Cup is,” the cricketer-turned-politician added.

Dhoni didn’t have the best of World Cup campaigns. The Jharkhand-born got a couple of half-centuries but tended to strain in crunch moments of a game. In the final, he scored 50, however, couldn’t save his team from an 18-run defeat to New Zealand and a World Cup-exit.