Harbhajan Singh and VVS Laxman share contrasting opinion on Dhoni's ODI future

What's the story?

Harbhajan Singh and VVS Laxman both agree that MS Dhoni will have an important role to play at the 2019 World Cup, but unlike the latter who believes that Dhoni's place in the squad is all but secure, Harbhajan feels that Dhoni will have to keep performing to keep his place or face the axe.

The duo shared their opinions along with former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly while speaking at Agenda Aajtak in New Delhi.

"One year is a lot and in Indian cricket, there are a lot of changes every day. Experience is there but form and everything matters. Dhoni is a big player but (the) World Cup is far off and Dhoni has to keep performing to be a part of the 11," said Harbhajan.

Laxman, however, is certain that Dhoni will be a part of the playing eleven in England and commended Indian skipper Virat Kohli for the way he has handled Dhoni since the latter stepped down from captaincy.

"I don't think Kohli is protecting Dhoni. He's above all that and he has a very important role to play in the 2019 World Cup. Kohli is handling Dhoni very well; much like (how) Sourav handled Sachin when he resigned from captaincy," Laxman said.

"Kohli is giving the right opportunities to MS Dhoni and he takes help from him. He has no ego and I feel Dhoni will have to play a huge hand," he added.

In case you didn't know...

While Harbhajan has still not officially retired from international cricket, the 37-year-old's chances of returning to the Indian national side are very slim, considering the abundance of riches in the spin department.

However, he did stir up a controversy with his comments on MS Dhoni ahead of the 2017 Champions Trophy after he missed out on the squad for the competition despite impressing in the IPL.

Laxman has also been in the news recently for his comments on the former Indian skipper and while he is unsure about Dhoni's T20 future, he has no doubts as to who the best bet for the Indian wicketkeeper-batsman spot in ODIs is.

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The heart of the matter

Since relinquishing the captaincy to Kohli in the shorter formats of the game earlier this year, Dhoni's performance in the 50-over format has been highly impressive, scoring 716 runs from 26 ODIs at an average of 65.09.

While Dhoni is no longer the big-hitting batsman of his early years, the 36-year-old has remodeled his game to suit the needs of the team, performing the role of a finisher.

He may have his critics but both Kohli and the Indian head coach Ravi Shastri has backed Dhoni fully and both Laxman and Harbhajan feel that Kohli has handled his predecessor pretty well considering how tough a proposition it can be especially in the context of Indian cricket where controversies are easy to arise.

What's next?

Dhoni will, however, be playing for India next under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma with Kohli being granted rest for the ODI and T20 series against Sri Lanka.

The visitors are staring at a heavy defeat in the ongoing 3rd Test match at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi and having lost the Nagpur Test, will be hoping to overturn their dismal run of series losses against India in Kohli's absence.

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Author's take

The transition from Dhoni to Kohli as skipper of the Indian team in all three formats of the game has been a hugely successful one.

The team has enjoyed considerable joy under Kohli's captaincy and the way Dhoni and Kohli have got along, with the latter stepping in to assist his successor on occasions, has been heartening, to say the least.

Kohli has been one of the fiercest ones to defend Dhoni against his critics and the way the former Indian skipper has kept performing in the ODI format, there is no reason why he shouldn't be a part of the 2019 World Cup squad.