Laxman, Agarkar and Aakash Chopra receive flak from Twitteratti after comments on MS Dhoni

The issue which was highlighted initially after he failed to finish a match against South Africa at Kanpur back in 2015, went on to create substance after his slow knock in one of the chases at the Caribbean, and now has created rifts between the cricketing fraternity who have entirely different opinion on the future of MS Dhoni.

It wasn’t too long ago when MS Dhoni took India towards safety and avoided a humiliating situation for India when they were at the cusp of defeat at Lanka, unable to read the spin of rookie Dhananjaya. Also, Australia was on the charge with their pace attack in the opening match of the high-octane series.

It was MSD yet again with a special inning with Pandya, which helped India towards an unlikely win and also set the momentum in the series. In the first T20I against New Zealand, Dhoni lit up the entire Ferozshah Kotla with a monumental hit off the very first ball he faced.

But all his good work was reduced to none as he was unable to time the ball in the Rajkot ODI as voices began to emerge about him calling it quits in the T20 squad and giving an opportunity for youngsters. Many forget that MSD voluntarily stepped aside from captaincy and Test format with Indian and him struggling with the bat in the Test format, and paved way for Virat Kohli take over the helms of captaincy.

Similarly, ahead of England series, he stepped aside from captaincy on his own as he thought VK was ready to take over from him in the limited-overs format. As soon as opinions from former cricketers such as VVS Laxman, Aakash Chopra and Ajit Agarkar started to take centre stage, the think tank of the Indian team featuring Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli lashed out at the comment on MS Dhoni by supporting the talismanic wicket-keeper batsman.

“For the Sri Lanka tour to India, maybe time is ripe to try somebody else, keep them in the loop. Because Dhoni’s numbers have overridden the last year and year and a half, it has dwindled,” opined Aakash Chopra. Ajit Agarkar also backed Chopra’s statement on MSD’s place in the Indian team.

“I think India must now look at other options, at least in T20Is. In one-day cricket, they seem to be happy with the role that he is playing. When you were the captain of the side, it was different. But just as a batsman, will India miss him, I don’t think so. In T20 cricket, it is a lot easier to make that transition as there is a lot of experience in that team apart from MS Dhoni now,” commented Agarkar. Comments from VVS Laxman only added fuel to the fire.

“I still feel it’s time for MS Dhoni to give youngsters a chance in T20 format. It will be an opportunity for a youngster to blossom and get confidence playing international cricket. He is definitely an integral part of ODI cricket,” advised Laxman. As a result, the trio faced a substantial amount of flak on social media.

Here are some of the reactions