England has leveled the ODI series by crushing India in the second ODI by 86 runs at the Lord’s cricket ground.
This defeat has once again given a chance to the critics of Dhoni to slam him as he played a slow knock in the times when India needed to speed-up the run-rate. However, the skipper Virat Kohli supported his wicketkeeper-batsman and said that he was not alone but everyone in the team had a bad day.
Kohli accepted that the team started well but lost the track as wickets fell quickly. He said,
“I think we started off well with the bat, it was a good wicket to play on. Did slow up in the second half but when we lost wickets early, that’s where we lost it a bit. You need wickets in hand during such chases, so when you lose early wickets, it’s tough to recover.”
When Kohli was asked whether the team missed Jasprit Bumrah or Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the last overs, the skipper said,
“These are games where you test the character of the guys, obviously Bumrah and Bhuvi have done it for long but it’s nice to test the character of the guys. Crucial to back the guys ahead.”
He added,
“Those three wickets early on played a massive part. But both Moeen and Rashid sensed the opportunity, they are good bowlers and created pressure. If we hadn’t lost early wickets, we might have been able to attack them more.”
When he was question about Dhoni’s slow knock of 37 runs in 59 balls, he said that people just wait for a chance to criticise him.
In his words,
“This thing comes up whenever he (Dhoni) doesn’t have a good day. People just wait to jump on him. On days when things don’t work, it can happen and immediately, people jump on him. Today was a bad day for all of us, not just him.”
He further said,
“Today was a bad day for all of us, not just him. He is experienced and the idea was to take it deep. You don’t want to lose by 150-160 runs.”
Dhoni came to bat after Kohli got out but wasn’t able to build up a partnership with any of the batsmen as the wickets kept on falling continuously on the other side.
What is your take on this matter? Do you agree with Kohli?