New Delhi,
\nFitter and faster than players 10 years his junior, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is irreplaceable in the Indian ODI team right now, feels national coach Ravi Shastri, who says critics should perhaps analyse their own careers at 36 before finding faults in the former captain.<\/p>\n
Dhoni\u2019s form with the bat has been heavily scrutinised in the recent past with every failure being looked upon as an ominous sign.<\/p>\n
However, the talismanic keeper-batsman did well in the just-concluded limited overs series against Sri Lanka to silence some of the criticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not stupid. I have been watching this sport for the last 30-40 years. Virat has been a part of this team for a decade now. We know, at this age, he (Dhoni) can beat players aged 26. People who talk, forget that they played the game,\u201d Shastri told \u2018India Today\u2019.<\/p>\n
Dhoni\u2019s sharp reflexes behind the stumps are still unmatched and chief selector MSK Prasad made it clear that none of the younger guys have quite yet matched up to the game-changer, under whose leadership India won an unprecedented two World Cups.<\/p>\n
The sentiment was echoed by Shastri, who has been vocal in defending Dhoni in the past as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they look at themselves in the mirror and ask the question, \u2018what they were at the age of 36?\u2019. Would they have run two runs faster? But the time they finish two, this guy will run three. Then he has won only two World Cups and averages only 51. Till today you don\u2019t have a wicket-keeper to replace him in the one-day team,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n
Shastri said Dhoni\u2019s skill set is not easy to find and it would be long before a replacement comes along.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is still one of the best around, not only in the Indian team, but in the world. Some of the things you see with him are not sold in the market. You will not get it anywhere else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that he does not play Test cricket, means he should be playing as much cricket as possible till the World Cup in 2019,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Shastri also spoke about the upcoming tour of South Africa, which starts with a three-match Test series from January 5.<\/p>\n
The team is scheduled to depart on December 27 and would be aiming to secure its first Test series triumph on the South African soil.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us all opposition is the same, all oppositions have to be respected and every game is a home match. And as it turned out that next we are in South Africa. Where South Africa is different is that we haven\u2019t won a series in South Africa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTherein lies a massive opportunity for the team to do something special. The belief is there. We are going there and we will treat South Africa like we treat any other opposition we have played against. There will be respect but we will go there to win,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Shastri heaped praise on current skipper Virat Kohli, who took a break from the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka after a massively successful year with the bat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe great thing about Virat is his work ethic, his realisation of what kind of player he can become and what he it takes to become that player… And it has become part of his lifestyle.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happens is, that when you have a captain in that frame of mind, wanting to achieve things others can only dream of. Then it rubs off on other players. Others want to emulate him. He wants to raise the bar for himself and he doesn\u2019t want any room for excuses,\u201d said Shastri.<\/p>\n
The Indian team is signing off the year with 37 wins across all formats and Shastri said it has a lot to do with the cohesion in the dressing room.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi, Fitter and faster than players 10 years his junior, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is irreplaceable in the Indian ODI team right now, feels national coach Ravi Shastri, who says critics should perhaps analyse their own careers at 36 before finding faults in the former captain. Dhoni\u2019s form with the bat has been heavily scrutinised […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15750,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15748\/revisions\/15750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}