Former India captain Sourav Ganguly Wednesday said Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a “champion ODI player” but doubted if he is still that good in the shortest format.
“I am not too sure if Dhoni is a good T20 player. He is a champion ODI player but when it comes to T20 cricket, in 10 years, he has got one fifty and that’s not the best record,” Ganguly told India Today.
Ganguly’s scathing comments came on the back Dhoni’s ever-falling run in the shortest format of the game.
Dhoni, who has been relived of captaincy duties by Rising Pune Supergiant and is playing for the first time as a player in the Indian Premier League, hasn’t performed as per the expectations in the ongoing league.
With scores of 12 not out, 5 and 11 in the three IPL 10 games he has played so far for the Rising Pune Supergiant, the 35-year-old cricketer, regarded as India’s most successful skipper across all formats, has failed to live up to the expectations of his fans.
Ganguly, however, said Dhoni is too good an ODI player to be ignored from India’s Champions Trophy squad.
“I will pick Dhoni for the Champions Trophy but he has to score runs,” Ganguly said.
Former Australian captain Michael Clarke also feels it is high time for Dhoni to explode with the bat.
“Dhoni has to score runs for himself. As a professional, he has to,” Clarke said.
Only days ago, Dhoni’s wife, Sakshi had taken to Instagram to launch an indirect attack against the owner of Rising Pune Supergiant, Harsh Goenka for his perceived insulting tweets against the former India captain.
In her post, captioned ‘Rule of Karma,’ Sakshi had said, “When a bird is alive, it eats ants. When the bird is dead, ants eat the bird. Time and circumstances can change at any time. Don’t devalue or hurt anyone in life. You may be powerful today, but remember, time is more powerful than you. One tree makes a million match sticks but only one match is needed to burn a million trees. So be good and do good.”
(With PTI inputs)