Captain MS Dhoni and his five undroppables

1. Suresh Raina

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Suresh Raina – it is not ‘just the bouncers’ anymore

In his last 30 ODI matches, Suresh Raina has crossed 50 only once (that too against Zimbabwe) and has made his teammates, followers and nephew experience unseen and unbelievable lows in life, matched only by England’s tour to Australia. The problem is not only with short-pitched deliveries anymore but also with perfectly normal good length deliveries; he has given a new lease of life to bowlers who were feeling strangulated with the latest fielding restriction changes in cricket.

Even when the bowler is in his run-up, people have spotted Raina going deep back into his crease in apprehension of getting bounced out, thereby turning even a good length ball into a short-pitched ball. In the last 1 year of ODI cricket, amongst all the batsmen who have played in more than 5 innings, Suresh Raina has the 86th-highest batting average.

Yes, you read it right, the 86th-highest batting average in the world­. The fact that Dhoni wanted to and the fact that Dhoni did try him out at the number 4 position keeping in mind that the next World Cup is going to be held in Australia and New Zealand is enough to keep Indian fans retching to their sleep every night.

Going by their current forms, if Jade Dernbach was to bowl to Suresh Raina, cricket definitely wouldn’t be the ultimate winner.

2. Rohit Sharma

Gets it so rarely and so, has no idea what to do with it.

Rohit Sharma is an enigma people haven’t been able to lay their fingers on and also happens to be the second-most hated Sharma in the entire Indian team. Nobody knows what exactly makes him tick, although there have been muffled silences of it having something to do with *cough* home *cough* conditions. You know the Bradman from Bansod is destined for greatness when you see one of his elegant cover-drives, and you also know that he is not when he sledges back to Dale Steyn saying, “We’ll see who scores more when you come to India”.

Needless to say he didn’t last for much long and eventually ended up scoring less runs than both Steyn and Vernon Philander in that Test series. Also, the captain of the team of players Dhoni has invested so heavily upon – was profitable only during the India-Australia ODI series, barring that his stock shares have always shown a red down arrow against the blue Indian jersey.