Team India lost early wickets in the semi-final against New Zealand which was the major reason for their defeat. Former India captain MS Dhoni came in to bat at No. 7 which baffled the great Sunil Gavaskar to a big extent.
India had lost Rohit Sharma (1), Virat Kohli (1) and KL Rahul (1) while the score was just 5. MS Dhoni, who has previously anchored India’s innings when the top order collapsed, was expected to come in to bat but instead, Dinesh Karthik came in. To surprise everybody more, Dhoni did not come in even after the fourth wicket fell in the form of Karthik.
Hardik joined Pant in the middle and a lot of cricket experts, pundits and fans were left with questions as to why the most experienced batsman in the dressing room was not coming in to bat.
“At that stage (24 for 4) you did not need two players playing in the same mould. Both (Pant and Pandya) are attacking players. It could have been an MS Dhoni coming in at this stage and talking to Rishabh every second delivery,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.
“He would have assessed from the non-striker's end what exactly Rishabh Pant is feeling: is he getting a little impatient? You have sent two people whose natural game is to go bang-bang, and at that stage, with the ball doing all kinds of things and the pressure being there, four wickets gone - you wanted somebody to hang in there. That was baffling,” he added.
Gavaskar believed that MS Dhoni not coming in to bat earlier in the semi-final was not the only baffling decision taken by the national team selectors. The negligence towards Ambati Rayudu, who averages 47 in ODIs, and the selection of Mayank Agarwal, who has not made his ODI debut yet, is really questionable.
“Let's face, there have been a lot of baffling decisions over the last couple of years. Ambati Rayudu for example - he should have been brought here. Why and how can you explain to me you bring in a Mayank Agarwal? He hasn't played a single ODI as yet. He just came before the Sri Lanka game, the last league game, (so) you want to him to make his debut in a semifinals or a final in case a slot was open? Why not bring in an Ambati Rayudu, who is your standby? Very disappointing to see what happened yesterday,” the 70-year-old said.
(Source: ESPNCricinfo)
