India lost another opportunity to win the World Cup in the 50-over format in 2019. However, the Indian Team management was criticized for their decision to send MS Dhoni to bat lately. Now, a former India cricketer, Parthiv Patel also raised questions about the decision of sending MS Dhoni at number seven.
During that match, India lost some quick wickets while chasing 240 runs. But, India decided to send Dinesh Karthik and Hardik Pandya ahead of Dhoni. Meanwhile, Dhoni failed to bat but it was already to stabilize that innings. Therefore, Parthiv Patel shared his view regarding the decision of sending MS Dhoni so late in the chase.
Parthiv’s comment came in reference to his explanation on how India have managed to get tactically wrong during ICC tournaments which resulted in defeats at crucial moments. Speaking to Cricbuzz, Parthiv opined that a batsman of Dhoni’s stature should have been sent earlier rather than being kept for No.7 position.
“In the 2019 World Cup semi-final, we sent Dinesh Karthik to bat at five and MS Dhoni at seven. I don’t know if MS Dhoni was going to win you the game from the dressing room,” he said.
“In bilateral series, you don’t have to change much. You just have to plan once and usually the plan goes for the full series. But the pressure is different when you get into a semi-final or a final. India lost to a better team at the 2015 World Cup. But when you look at the Champions Trophy final (2017), India got it wrong tactically by deciding to bowl first on that wicket. Or in the 2019 World Cup, we didn’t get our team right as we couldn’t find a No.4 batter for two years.”
“In the last T20 World Cup, we left out Yuzvendra Chahal, who is our No.1 spinner and picked players who had done well just in the recent past. We didn’t win those ICC trophies because we were tactically not right,” he explained.