Bishan Singh Bedi questions team management’s decision to rest MS Dhoni for last two matches
Bishan Singh Bedi has stated that India shouldn’t have left out MS Dhoni for the last two games against Australia as he is the half-captain of the side. The former Indian off-spinner has added that Rishabh Pant is a wild horse and someone needs to tame that as it is not doing any good to the team.
Virat Kohli was never on the ball in the last game while devising the fielding plans and the absence of MS Dhoni was visible when India changed their bowlers abruptly. With Rishabh Pant being a green-horn, India needed an experienced man in the circle so as to take a call on DRS and otherwise, but Kohli fielded himself in the deep, leaving Rohit Sharma a lot of brainstorming to do. Bishan Singh Bedi was not happy with that and stated that the Indian skipper lacked direction in the Mohali ODI.
"I am nobody to comment but we all are wondering that why Dhoni is being rested and his absence was felt yesterday, behind the stumps, with the bat and on the field also. He is almost half a captain," Bedi told PTI.
"Dhoni is not getting any younger, he is no spring chicken either but the team needs him. He has a calming influence on the side. The captain needs him by his side, he is visibly rough without him. It is not a good sign.”
With the game moving at a fast pace, it has become imperative that the sportsman also keeps up with it in order to maintain the ecosystem. Rishabh Pant is not an anomaly either as he has made a cult status of his own with the banter behind the stumps, however, with each miss behind the stumps, his technical flaws have come out openly. And Bedi is a believer of the fact that one needs to counsel him in order to make sure that he doesn’t repeat the same mistakes time and again.
"Pant is a wild horse. Somebody has to tame him. Who is going to do that? The support staff should be able to do that. He is making the same mistakes again and again and behind stumps, too, he has a lot of work to do, honestly. Your chairman of
A strong advocate of having a defensive option available with them so as to tame the opposition’s attacking instinct - having himself being a part of the similar kind of spin quartet in his heyday, Bedi is of the opinion that the team is losing a trick by not having Ravindra Jadeja in the set-up. The former off-spinner, who took 266 wickets in 67 Tests, has also added that a lot of experiment leading to the World Cup has been detrimental to the side.
"I would personally like them to live in the present. World Cup is still two and a half months away. Just play the game. For the World Cup, we have been experimenting in the last one year and I am not happy with that at all. I hope they are right about wrist spinners but I cannot figure if there is a better all-rounder than Jadeja. What is the need to undermine him?" he asked.