Why MS Dhoni should captain India against Afganistan 

With India winning both of its super four matches, they have already qualified for the finals of the Asia Cup. Bangladesh and Pakistan will face each other in a virtual quarterfinal and the winner will meet India in the finals.

India still have a game to go against Afganistan which will be a dead rubber, as the result of the match won't have any effect on the teams qualifying for the finals.

Rohit Sharma is leading India in this Asia Cup and till now has done a great job. He has been very proactive as a captain. He has been brilliant in changing his bowlers. In my opinion, India should give rest to Rohit Sharma against Afganistan and allow MS Dhoni to lead the side for this one match.

Let us look at some reasons why MS Dhoni should lead the side.

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#1 Giving rest to Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma has been phenomenal with the bat in this Asia Cup. He has scored two fifties and in the last match scored an unbeaten hundred. His partner Shikhar Dhawan has been in even better form. He already has scored two centuries in this Asia Cup.

India could rest both Shikhar and Rohit and have KL Rahul and Ambati Raydu open the innings. Manish Pandey could play at #3 followed by Dinesh Karthik, Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav.

This will give the middle order players an opportunity to play more with the bat and it will be helpful for India as till now only Rohit, and Dhawan have been scoring runs. Getting runs under the belt will give the middle order batsmen more confidence before the finals.

India could also try their bench strength of Siddarth Kaul and Khaleel Ahmed in this match. Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar should be given rest as the conditions are extremely difficult for the pacers.

Afghanistan have played exceptional cricket in this Asia Cup. Firstly, they defeated Sri Lanka by a huge margin and then followed that with a huge victory over Bangladesh and topped their group. However, in the super four stage, they had two very close encounters which they could have won if they would have kept their nerves under control.

In the first match of the super four, they lost to Pakistan when Shoaib Malik took Pakistan home in the last over. In the last match, they required just 8 runs in the last over but they couldn't cross the line. Although they have earned accolades from all over the world, they still have a lot to learn.

They are showing tremendous growth and potential. Afghanistan have nothing to lose and would want to show their talent and ability. The Indian side has been dominant in this Asia Cup, but if they rest their players then it will be a close contest to watch against Afghanistan.

#2 MS Dhoni needs one more to lead India in 200 ODI matches

Figures like 99,199 are always a sore to the eye. Players always want to convert these figures to the nearest hundred, be it a batsman or a bowler. Batsman will always want to score that one extra run to get to his fifty, hundred or double hundred.

Similarly, a bowler will want to take that extra wicket. Muralitharan would have been disappointed if he would have been stuck on 799 and not finishing off at 800. Sachin was stuck on 99 international hundreds for such a long time and everybody wanted him to score one more to reach the 100 international centuries mark.

It creates pressure on a player when they are stuck on figures like these. Sachin was the most affected one as is evident from his scores which dominantly lie in the nervous nineties.

There are some figures which players would have wanted to have crossed.

1) Sachin scored 49 ODI centuries. He and his fans from all over the world would have wanted him to score one more and get to 50 ODI centuries.

2) Azharuddin played 99 test matches and was not able to play the 100th test match which is every cricketer's dream.

3) Bradman's average of 99.94 would have been over 100 if he had scored 4 runs in his last match.

The same thing is currently with MS Dhoni. He has captained India in 199 ODIs and his fans would want him to captain the side one more time and make this tally to 200. It won't make a big difference whether he captains again for one more match or not but still everyone would love to see him in those shoes again.

If MS is made the captain it will attract more crowd to the television sets, especially his fans from all over the globe.