Sanjay Bangar, India’s assistant coach, has become the latest member of the team management to come to the defence of MS Dhoni.Dhoni’s batting at the 2019 World Cup has been the subject of great debate as he has played some laboring knocks. Much of the criticism has been centred around his tendency to eat up dots, which have made up the bulk of his recent innings more often than not, and his tendency to hold back until very late into the innings before unfurling the big hits.Those questions resurfaced after India’s performance against England, where Dhoni was puzzlingly content to settle for singles during the closing moments of a tall chase, though India had five wickets in hand and could still afford to venture the big hits.🚨 NEW PODCAST 🚨🎙️@Yas_Wisden 🎙️@benjonescricket ON:🏏 🏴 keeping their #CWC19 dream alive.🏏 Why @ImRo45 is an all-time ODI great🏏 Moeen's place in the 🏴 side🏏 Rishabh Pant+ much, much more.Listen and subscribe on Spotify/Podcast App.https://t.co/FSRKFrmuS6— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) July 1, 2019Dhoni’s unbroken 39-run stand with Kedar Jadhav has especially come under scrutiny. When the two joined hands, India required 71 runs off 31 balls – an extremely difficult proposition – but not impossible by modern ODI standards.But there were other considerations to make, such as the fact that India had fielded a long tail, featuring Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah for the game, making Dhoni and Jadhav the last specialist batsmen that remained. Other factors included a sluggish surface that had made stroke-making difficult and the fact that England’s bowlers were brilliant at the death, not giving an inch away as they stifled India’s batsmen with their lack of pace.All said, Dhoni and Jadhav put on 39 runs in 31 balls and only hit three fours and a six in the last five overs – that’s four attacking shots in the last 30 deliveries of the innings. Bangar, however, had a different perspective to it all.“I felt MS was striking the ball really well,” he said. “He had good intent. It is just that the English bowlers stuck to their task really well. They used the angles, and used the large boundaries to their advantage. When they were bowling to the shorter side of the boundary, they were bowling a pretty good line. I didn’t really find anything wrong in MS’ innings. He was batting beautifully. He struck a few big blows.”Bangar pointed out to some of Dhoni’s better knocks in the tournament, such as the breezy cameo against Australia that helped haul India to over 350, and the unbeaten 56 against West Indies that gave a late thrust to the innings and propelled India towards a competitive total.“Except for one-odd innings, he [Dhoni] has done the role,” Bangar said. “We have already played seven games now? Five times out of those seven games he has done the job for the team. In the South Africa game, he stitched together a partnership of 70 [74] with Rohit [Sharma]. After that, what was required of him to go out there and accelerate against Australia, he did that. In Manchester, on a difficult track [against West Indies], he got a vital 58 [56*] for us.“Here also, he was striking the ball really well. So I’m surprised that this question continues to come up every now and then. He is doing the job for the team and overall we are very happy with the intent that he is batting with.”Bangar also highlighted the efforts of the England bowlers at the death, which made run-scoring difficult. “I don’t think so,” he said, when asked if Dhoni was lacking in intent, “because if you look at the way the English bowlers bowled towards the end, they used the dimensions [of the ground] really well and they created difficult angles for our batsmen to hit.“And with those large boundaries and the type of balls they were bowling – slower bouncers and a lot of into-the-wicket deliveries, slower balls… Maybe in the last one or two overs, the difference between runs required and the balls left was a bit too much. We just felt that right up to the 47th, 48th over. Had we tried bigger shots earlier, we might have probably been a few runs short. It also helps the NRR a bit, those extra runs.”
