World Cup 2019: Sourav Ganguly defends MS Dhoni after the slow knock against Afghanistan

What’s the story?

India’s wicket-keeper MS Dhoni, who was widely criticized after his slow knock against Afghanistan, has found support from India’s ex-captain Sourav Ganguly. Ganguly, who is on the ICC commentary panel for the World Cup, spoke about Dhoni’s slow innings against the Afghan team and brushed it off as just one bad day in office.

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Team India played Afghanistan in a tightly contested game at Southampton on Saturday. India were expected to dominate the Afghans but the minnows showed great fight as the game was decided in the last over.

In that game, Dhoni played a strange innings of 28 from 52 balls which caused many people, including Sachin Tendulkar, to criticize him for his lack of attacking intent. In the end it didn’t matter that much though as India won the game by 11 runs.

The heart of the matter

India were in some trouble against Afghanistan at 122-3 when Dhoni came out to bat, and they lost captain Virat Kohli soon after that. The need of the hour was to do damage control, and Dhoni started his innings slowly.

Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib used spinners to strangle the Indian middle order. Dhoni was finding it difficult to rotate the strike against the spinners on the slow track and as a result, played a lot of dot balls. But he failed to accelerate even at the end as he was dismissed while trying to play a big shot against Rashid Khan.

India failed to get to a score above 250 and many believed one of the reasons for that was Dhoni’s slow innings. But even though most of the fans and ex-players criticized Dhoni, Ganguly has come to his support.

"At the end of the day, MSD is a very good batsman and he will definitely prove that in this year’s World Cup 2019 as well despite his sticky form against Afghanistan. It’s just one match," Ganguly said.

Ganguly has always been a supporter of the experienced keeper and this time was no different.

What’s next?

India takes on West Indies at Manchester on Thursday in an important contest. They are in a good position at the moment and need to win just two of their next four games to qualify.

Dhoni is the most experienced player in the team and he will definitely play an integral role in the upcoming games, especially in the knockouts. His fans would be hoping he scores his runs at a quicker rate than he did against Afghanistan.

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