Former India captain Sourav Ganguly on Sunday (February 10) expressed his delight over MS Dhoni’s return to form, saying that it is the biggest positive for India during their three-month long tour of Australia and New Zealand.
Dhoni scored three consecutive half-centuries to help India register its maiden bilateral ODI series victory Down Under. His Player-of-the-Series performance in Australia include the scores of 51 (Sydney), 55 not out (Adelaide) and 87 not out (Melbourne) as the Men in Blue emerged triumphant by a margin of 2-1.
Dhoni could feature in three out of the five ODIs in New Zealand owing to a hamstring injury. While the veteran wicketkeeper didn’t get a chance to bat in the ODI series opener in Napier, he scored 33-ball 48* in the second clash at Bay Oval and followed it up with 1 in the fifth match at Wellington. In three T20Is against the Black Caps, the veteran campaigner registered the scores of 39, 20* and 2.
"The biggest positive for India was MS Dhoni because his performance from the past one year didn't show he will go to the World Cup. He may be a bit bad today but overall he has improved a lot in the Australia and New Zealand series. So, this is the biggest positive for India," Ganguly told IndiaTV.
"Vijay Shankar improved his batting and Rishabh Pant played well too but I don't think Shankar will go to the World Cup. Shami's bowling in the ODI was the biggest positive," he added.
Ganguly also said that losing the T20I series shouldn't be too much of a concern for India as they played well throughout the Trans-Tasman tour.
"You need to understand that they are human beings and they can't win every series. India won 10 series and this would have been the 11th. So, I feel this is a good team and it was the big score pressure that India failed to win the match," Ganguly remarked.
"I felt New Zealand batted really well and India dropped catches and some were difficult but if you don't take catches, you will lose. So, if they had taken the catches, they could have restricted New Zealand to 190-195. But, New Zealand really played well in the T20 series," he further asserted.
The former skipper also opined that chopping and changing of the playing XI was necessary to test the bench strength ahead of the all-important World Cup in England and Wales.
"The reason was to give new players chance and if you dont test Shankar, Pant and Khaleel, you wont know if they can play under pressure. So, I feel it was okay from India to do that. The year I feel was a good one for India in limited-ovrs series. They have won series in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. So, I feel, it was needed to test the players ahead of the World Cup.
"The only thing were I feel we can improve is I feel fielding and India will definitey look into it," Ganguly said.
He also insisted that India should keep Kuldeep Yadav under wraps if they want to surprise the opposition in the showpiece event.
"India had Krunal and he bowled really well, took three wickets and won the match for India. You cant change the team in every match and You need to use Kuldeep as a surprise package. If you play him in every match, batsmen will figure him out. So, you need to protect him to keep that surprise package intact till the World Cup," he concluded.
