Vinod Kambli believes MS Dhoni should have been picked for Australia T20Is

It surely came as a shock to fans of the Indian Cricket Team when they couldn’t find MS Dhoni in the list of players for the T20I series against Australia next month. Dhoni, who’s been arguably India’s best wicketkeeper, has been dropped from the Indian team for the shortest format of the game. India are to play 3 T20Is against the Windies following the ongoing ODI series.

In mid-November, they will take on hosts Australia in another 3-match T20I series. On Friday, the selectors announced the teams for both T20I series and also released the Test squad for the important tour of Australia. As expected, there was much hue and cry after the veteran was left out from the side. Dhoni has indeed had issues with the bat and hasn’t been able to score runs freely in the middle-order.

Earlier this year, he was booed during an England-India ODI in Lord’s where fans claimed he lacked the ‘intent’ to win. Although hailed as one of the best finishers the sport has ever seen, Dhoni’s capabilities with the bat definitely seem to have diminished.

A prolonged lean patch

His highest score in his last 7 appearances with the bat for India is just 42, which came during the third ODI against England at Headingley earlier this year. During the Asia Cup as well, Dhoni didn’t impress with the bat. But the very same MSD was in top form in the Chennai Super Kings title-winning return to the IPL where he scored over 400 runs for his side during the tournament.

Chief selector for the Indian team MSK Prasad made it clear that MS hasn’t been picked because they’d like to try out the second wicket-keeping option, and have hence handed the gloves to young Rishabh Pant. He also added that this isn’t ‘the end of MS Dhoni in T20Is.’

Nevertheless, fans have vented their anger at the decision to drop Dhoni. Even experts and former cricketers didn’t seem to agree with the decision. Former India batsman Vinod Kambli took to Twitter to say, “According to me @msdhoni should have been a part of the T20 squad. He needs to be in the squad leading upto the world cup and dropping him now doesn’t make sense to me. What do you think?”

Clearly, the selectors have noticed that it is time to look beyond Dhoni because sooner or later the former captain will hang up his boots. However, it is yet to be seen whether this decision will go down well or not.

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