Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni acknowledged on Sunday that his finishing abilities are on the wane as India beat New Zealand by seven wickets in the third ODI riding on Virat Kohli’s sterling century.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni acknowledged on Sunday that his finishing abilities are on the wane as India beat New Zealand by seven wickets in the third ODI riding on Virat Kohli’s sterling century.
Kohli and Dhoni, who scored 80, were involved in a 151-run third-wicket partnership that set up the comprehensive win. However Dhoni, who promoted himself to number four in the batting order, departed in the 36th over, leaving Kohli and Manish Pandey to get 94 more runs. “To some extent I am losing the ability to freely rotate in the middle, so I have decided to bat up and let the others finish,” said Dhoni, who scored his first half-century in 11 innings on Sunday.
Dhoni was candid enough to admit that batting at four was more of his need than the team’s.
“One has to see that I am not playing Tests anymore. Lower down, I play according to what the situation demands. Batting at number four was an ideal position to express myself. It is more of my need than the team’s. There are other guys who can play at 4 too but we need to think about grooming batsmen to bat five, six and seven.”
Dhoni is no stranger to no. 4 having already scored 1,171 runs in 24 matches with an impressive average of 61.63.
“With the top order being in brilliant form, the likes of Virat, Rohit (Sharma), Shikhar (Dhawan), I was not getting to bat for a lot of overs. I have not got enough chances to bat in the last one and a half years. Since there are few ODIs this season, I only get to play one-dayers in domestic cricket,” he said.
Hailing Kohli as one of the best in the world, Dhoni said the Delhi dazzler’s biggest advantage is that he has the ability to maintain a good strike rate without taking risks.Kohli produced a breathtaking knock of 154, while Dhoni struck 80, as India cruised to an easy seven-wicket victory in the third ODI against New Zealand here.
“I can comment on how good he (Kohli) is, how consistent he is. He is certainly amongst the best. One great thing about him is that he maintains a good strike rate even without playing high risk shots,” said Dhoni.
Asked whether Kohli was one of the greatest cricketers he has played with, Dhoni said it was unfair to compare players of different eras.
“All I can say I batting with Virat is great. He helps in building partnerships. He is fantastic. Our biggest problem in the cricket fraternity is that we try to compare. How cricket is played has changed drastically. We can’t compare a Sehwag with a Gavaskar. Even the approach in a Test match has changed a lot.”
