Indian cricket team won the last One Day International against Australia but it can’t hide the dismal performance of team India in the series which they have lost with 4-1. It was obvious that some tough questions would be asked by the captain M S Dhoni and his retirement was also one of the topics to be talked about.
However, the 34-yr wicketkeeper-batsman made it clear in a sarcastic tone that he was not thinking of retirement when he was asked whether it was his final ODI. This is what he replied, “Iske liye PIL file karna padega (For this, a PIL will have to be filed).”
There is a lot of discussion going on the topic of Dhoni’s captaincy as some former players are feeling that Dhoni has lost his golden touch and from here, downfall is the only option; however, Dhoni is not at all concerned with these discussions as well as his form. He said, “I think it’s better to go out this way, knowing that the time has come. In time, today will fade. The 91* in Wankhede will remain glorious.”
Dhoni praised Manish Pandey for performing well under the pressure and he was also happy with the performance of debutant Jasprit Burmah who took 2 wickets and gave 40 runs which is a very good figure in comparison to other bowlers.
In the words of Dhoni, “The top order has been together for a long time now. Where we have been hurt a little bit is the lower-order batting, where Manish did really well today, and also the fact that we have not had a settled bowling attack. We need to give credit to our bowlers, we always give credit to Australian bowlers when they lose. Bumrah was fantastic.”
Dhoni made his unhappiness very clear about Virat Kohli’s shot which hit the spider cam and India lost four runs from being added to their score. As per the rule, if the ball hits the spider cam, the ball is declared as dead ball. Dhoni said, “I’m quite a traditional guy. Anything that disturbs the game of cricket, I don’t like it. Maybe, spider cam could be fined $2000.”
Team India may have lost the series but their skipper feels that his team has been very competitive throughout the series as he maintained, “I think we have been competitive in the series. The goal was to win matches. The first four games, I thought were close, but we didn’t close it down well. That’s important in the ODI format. Every over matters, especially in a high-scoring game. Giving those 15-20 run overs, it becomes slightly easier for the opposition.”
Check out what he replied when he was asked about his poor shot selection:-
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufdep868ISQ[/yt]
Click here to watch this video directly on YouTube
