MS Dhoni needs to encourage bowlers more, says Sunil Gavaskar

Gavaskar thinks Dhoni needs to do more to boost confidence in bowling line-up

One of the greatest openers of all time, Sunil Gavaskar thinks Indian ODI team captain MS Dhoni needs to step up to encourage bowlers when they are having difficult time in a match. Indian bowlers failed to take wickets in regular interval which costed India the series against Bangladesh.

"Every member of the team wants the captain to be by his side, be a batsman or a bowler, but particularly a bowler when he is getting some punishment,” Gavaskar was quoted saying by Mid Day News.

“When the punishment is happening and he is looking around and I think if he has a senior player or a captain around who puts his hands around his shoulders and says don't worry...I have confidence in your bowling, it can make a difference. That is always something captains look to do and try and encourage the bowlers, try and make sure that he is not dispirited.

"If not the captain himself, a senior player is often given the task to stand at mid off or mid on to be able to tell the bowlers to keep their spirits up," he said.

India first time lost an ODI series against the Bangladesh team. Mashrafe Mortaza led tigers clinched the 3 match series by 2-1 comfortably. MS Dhoni was seen batting up the order after a long break when he saw the top order collapse was putting the team in trouble.

Commenting on Dhoni’s batting, the former Indian captain said that he should always promote himself up the way he did in Bangladesh series depending situation.

"He (Dhoni) is always going to see what situation the team is in, what the team needs and then he can promote to number 4 or 5. If the openers made a brilliant start say 150 for no loss in 20 overs, then he might even promote himself to number three if there is the need to get the push going or the pressure going.

He added saying that Ajinkya Rahane should be permanent no. 4 for India in ODIs as he has the variety in shots and not Dhoni.

"But I don't think that he (Dhoni) can be a permanent number four. I think, Ajinkya Rahane is the number four India can look at because he has got the variety of shots despite the fact that we have been told that he does not rotate the strike well enough. But I think he has got the variety of shots, he has got the techniques in case of early wickets to stem the flow of wickets and steady the innings."