The greatest finisher of all time Mahendra Singh, needs to introspect his slow batting approach which puts major pressure on the batsman at the non-striker’s end. Initially, he has a habit of consuming too many balls to settle down which, in turn compels the other batsmen to look for boundaries to maintain a decent run rate, and most of the times they end up losing their wickets. He needs to rotate the strike at the outset so that the set batsman can play his natural game, and at the same time, the momentum does not shift towards the opponents.
Everyone is praising Dhoni for his amazing half-century against West Indies, but one must remember that stage where he was playing for 18 runs in 36 balls. History could repeat but he was lucky enough to get the boundaries in the last over. A player can not wait for the last few overs to score runs. If he can not hit boundaries from the very first ball, he should take singles and doubles to keep moving the scoreboard. It is ideal to anchor the innings when the top order batsmen have been dismissed at a low score, but it is important to rotate the strike equally.
In recent years. Dhoni struggled against the spinners and it is shocking to know that he has a strike rate of 61 against the spinners since 2018, and he comes to bat in the middle overs when the spinners are bowling from both the ends generally, which is a major setback for him and the team as well. He really needs to improve his technique against spinners, then only he will be able to rotate the strike from the beginning.
If a player continuously plays dot balls to settle down and gets out after that phase, the team has to suffer a lot and most of the times, ends up losing the match. Over the years, Dhoni has altered his game and takes time to settle on the pitch whilst evaluating when he has to accelerate. In the match against Afghanistan, Dhoni had scored 28 runs in 53 balls which was unexpected. If he had stayed till the last over, he would have scored a half-century, but this approach will not help the team in every match. So, it is better for him to play his game naturally from the very first ball rather than waiting for the last overs to target the bowlers.
Continue reading “MS Dhoni should introspect his batting approach”
Site Title 