VVS Laxman wants MS Dhoni to retire from T20I cricket

MS Dhoni has been under constant scrutiny for his failure to close matches. In the second T20 International, he was seen struggling at the start of his innings in Rajkot on Saturday. While Team India needed 10 to 12 runs per over to win the match, Dhoni failed to play his part with skipper Virat Kohli at the other end and that took the game away from them.

With 10 overs left in the match, Dhoni took a lot of time to get his eyes in and open up his arms before unleashing amidst his knock of 49 from 37 balls. As Dhoni was struggling pressure mounted upon Kohli to get the big shots and he ended up playing an uncharacteristic shot on 65 off 42 to be dismissed by Mitchell Santner.

Talking about Dhoni’s failure to finish like he used to do in his heydeys in international cricket, VVS Laxman said, “In T20s, MS Dhoni‘s role is at No 4. He requires more time to get his eye in and then do the job. But today [Saturday] was a classic example because when Virat Kohli was batting, Dhoni had to give the strike to Kohli. Kohli’s strike rate was 160, MS Dhoni’s strike rate was 80. That’s not good enough when India was chasing a mammoth total.”

Since Dhoni has been struggling in the shortest format the former Indian batsman said he should vacate the position of wicketkeeper-batsman for a youngster. Laxman’s opinion seems valid as playing Dhoni in shortest format will not benefit the Indian team as he is not going to play after 2019 World Cup and the T20 World Cup is slotted for 2020.

“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,” he added.