After Choking in Rajkot, Can Dhoni’s Men Bounce Back in Chennai?
MS Dhoni will face one of the trickiest tests of his international career in the 4th ODI in Chennai on Thursday.
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Indian Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will face one of the trickiest tests of his international career as he tries to come up with the perfect batting combination when India takes on South Africa in a must-win fourth ODI in Chennai on Thursday.
Down 1-2 and with a bunch of batsmen not showing enough flexibility at different numbers, it has become a tough task for skipper Dhoni, who is facing the danger of losing a home ODI series and a second straight ODI series after the 2-1 defeat against Bangladesh earlier this year.
If Ravichandran Ashwin’s side strain is one of the many on-field worries for Dhoni, the problems have been compounded by off-field woes as leg-spinner Amit Mishra is facing assault charges with a woman filing a case against him at the Bengaluru police station on Tuesday.
Harbhajan Singh, however, made it clear that Amit Mishra is available for the match in the pre-match press conference on Wednesday.
Run chases have been a problem of late for the Indian team as the skipper himself has admitted that the side is yet to figure out who are the ideal players at number 5, 6 and 7.
These are the three slots where batsmen who are capable of big hits and can be finishers in close run chases are preferred.
However, with an ageing Dhoni preferring to bat up the order, Ajinkya Rahane is yet to find his mojo at Number 5 or 6. Dhoni’s deputy Virat Kohli finally got some ODI runs (77) in the last game but it was a lost cause.
But Virat returned to form the moment he was back at his preferred Number 3 slot while Rahane, the moment he was demoted, couldn’t get going after two half-centuries in the first two games.
Suresh Raina is another player who is not in good form. Only 3 runs from 3 matches is not a fair indication of one of India’s better limited-overs player. Opener Shikhar Dhawan’s form is a cause for concern too.
Over in the South African camp, there are some injury issues. Morne Morkel has a sore leg and is unlikely to feature in the penultimate match while one of their finest death-over hitters JP Duminy is out for three weeks with a hand injury. His replacement Dean Elgar will have his work cut out for him in the next two games.
The South African team has had a mix and match kind of performance from their batsmen with skipper AB de Villiers scoring a hundred and Faf du Plessis hitting three half-centuries in as many matches.
Quinton de Kock returned to form with a cautious century in the last game. The only problem has been Hashim Amla’s form – he has scored only 59 runs in three matches.