Cricket experts are baffled over Dhoni’s performance against England

The Indian team came under severe criticism over their lack of determination to win the Sunday’s crucial match against the host England and qualify for the World Cup semi-finals. Cricket pundits are schooling Indian team and Dhoni’s approach.

Indian social media has lit up in outrage at the Dhoni’s uncharacteristically sluggish approach. MS Dhoni had a poor strike rate in the final overs of his side’s narrow 31-run World Cup loss to England.

Former England captain Nasser Hussain, who was commentating along with Sourav Ganguly during the match in the final overs, termed MS Dhoni’s approach as ‘baffling’.

“I am completely baffled. What’s going on! This is not what India needed. They need runs,” said Nasser Hussain.

“Some Indian fans are leaving now. Surely they must want to see Dhoni go for his shots, even if he slogs it off in the air. It’s a World Cup game, top two sides, give it a go! Indian fans would want their side to do a little bit more. They want their side to go down with a fight. Risk it to win it.”

Ex-Indian skipper Ganguly expressed his displeasure while commentating. “I don’t have an explanation for that. You asked me the question but I can’t explain these singles. It’s also the length and the bounce that has deceived the Indian batsmen. You can’t be chasing 338 and still have five wickets in the end. It’s about mindset and the way you look at the game”, he added.

After India lost to England, Waqar Younis in a tweet wrote: “It’s not who you are. What you do in life defines who you are. Me not bothered if Pakistan gets to the semis or not but one thing is for sure. Sportsmanship of few Champions got tested and they failed badly”.

Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle tweeted: “Disappointing finish. A run-a-ball partnership can’t win games”.

Sanjay Manjrekar called Dhoni’s approach to the last few overs “baffling”, in a tweet he said:

In post-match press talks, both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma came in defending go-slow approach of MS Dhoni.

“I believe MS was attempting actually laborious to get the boundary nevertheless it wasn’t coming off. They bowled in good areas and the ball was stopping, therefore it was troublesome to bat in the direction of the top”, said Kohli.

Though that was not the case with the cricket fans: