Former Australia fast bowler Jason Gillespie has heaped praise on MS Dhoni, saying that the veteran wicketkeeper remains a massive player for India as he knows how to pace an innings in different match situations.
Dhoni’s vital knock helped India register a series-equalling six-wicket victory in the second ODI against Australia at the Adelaide Oval on Tuesday. Chasing 299 to win, Dhoni played a crucial innings of 55 not out in 54 balls to guide India home. After Virat Kohli’s dismissal in the 44th over for 104, Dhoni added 57 runs for the fifth wicket with Dinesh Karthik (25*) as the visitors sealed the deal with four balls to spare.
“India have benefitted from Dhoni’s finishing ability for more than a decade. They are still benefitting from it. They benefitted from his experience when they were down at 4-3 in Sydney as well. He was a bit slow in Sydney but you have to understand why. He played the situation,” Gillespie told PTI.
“And it is tough to keep coming down the order and playing as per different situations. In Adelaide, he had a completely different situation, so he played differently (in the second ODI). He has played over 300 ODIs so he knows how to play these different situations,” he added.
Skipper Virat Kohli played a sublime knock of 104 for the visitors after the opening duo of Shikhar Dhawan (32) and Rohit Sharma (43) added 47 runs for the first wicket. It was Kohli’s 24th ODI century in run chases and his 39th overall.
Commenting on Virat’s batting masterclass, Gillespie said the Indian captain is notch above his peers.
“It was an absolute masterclass from Kohli. He is a class player and a different batsman to everyone else. Numbers speak for themselves and you genuinely don’t need to add anything to it. Thirty nine hundreds and 10,000 plus runs in ODI cricket in 50 fewer innings than Tendulkar.
“And we all knew how good a player Tendulkar was. It is simply incredible what Kohli is doing. He is the best in world cricket at the moment, simple,” Gillespie was at loss of words to describe Virat before pointing out that India were too dependent on their skipper, albeit he refused to label the middle order “shaky”.
“I wouldn’t say that the Indian middle-order is looking shaky. They have a lot of good batting talent, and a couple of them were coming from rest or injury. They have a well-balanced side and enough batting firepower, even if they do rely on Kohli a lot,” Gillespie observed.
“Ideally, (players) would be like to play more, no doubt. But you have to find that balance between rest and playing constantly, so they can recover physically as well as mentally. You have to balance it so they get enough batting preparation and that only happens when you are playing games as opposed to batting in the nets.
“These batsmen would have done plenty of net training but spending time in the middle is vital. Judging how to play an innings in different conditions are things you can only learn in the middle. It is best to get as much batting practice as you can,” he elaborated.
Jason Gillespie also opined that the Indian bowling attack led by Jasprit Bumrah makes the team one of the favourites for the 2019 World Cup alongside hosts England.
“I think the Indian attack is well balanced. Bumrah has been rested for obvious reason but their attack is still quite good. Everyone offers different things, and you add Bumrah to it, so they are well placed to mount a challenge for the World Cup. I think England are the obvious favourites, but India won’t be far behind,” he insisted.
“I enjoy watching Bumrah bowl. He just ambles in but when he gets to the crease, he almost has a slingshot action. He bowls at good pace, hurries the batsmen up, and he can also change his pace a lot. He is a very fine bowler. His action does stand out. It is a braced front leg, delayed bowling arm action. It gets you to the crease quickly, and delivers that sling shot. It is what generates his pace. “But you need to be strong to be able to do that. Bumrah is robust and fit to bowl long spells in Test cricket. He keeps his pace up throughout a Test and this is what makes him an exciting bowler,” Gillespie concluded.
(With PTI inputs)
