ENG v IND 2018: "Age is catching up on MS Dhoni," says Virender Sehwag after the series loss

Dhoni played another struggling innings against England in the third ODI.

Virender Sehwag and MS Dhoni

India lost the series decider against England at Leeds and Virender Sehwag didn't hesitate to put blame on the batsmen which was very much fair. Indian batsmen couldn't build up one good partnership to take India's total to an above par score. The lack of momentum cost India the game.

England crushed the visitors by 8 wickets after Joe Root and Eoin Morgan put up an unbroken 186-run partnership to guide their team home. While skipper Morgan scored 88*, Root scored another hundred in the three-match series. England chased down 257 with 33 balls in hand.

Criticising the Indian batting line-up, Sehwag told India TV, that the team looked 30-40 runs short. "India lost because they didn't score runs. They were 30-40 runs short of putting up a challenging total. The batsmen could have done a better job, be it anyone, Dhoni, Kohli, Rohit or Dhawan, either should have hung on to score runs so that the bowlers could apply pressure in the chase. Bhuvneshwar's injury was still obvious when he was on the field. Root and Morgan managed to negate Kuldeep this time. I blame the batsmen for this loss."

The former India cricketer added that age has caught up on Dhoni and he is not the same cricketer anymore. "If Karthik and Dhoni could have hung on till the end, the outcome could have been very different. I feel that Dhoni is not the same person that he was before. Age is surely catching up. He used to take the responsibility to take the match till the end. He could have converted the many dot balls he played into runs," Sehwag said. 

Even Kohli wasn't spared by the cricketer turned cricket pundit. He was upset with the decisions made by Indian skipper. 

"Earlier Virat said that he would experiment with the team and by dropping KL Rahul and Umesh Yadav, it seemed highly unfair. If it worked out, they would have been praised, but since they lost, Kohli will surely be criticised for the changes in the team," he said.

 
 

By Sihyeu Singh - 18 Jul, 2018

    Share Via