Internet Desk: Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly thinks India skipper Virat Kohli played a huge role in the return to form of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in last one month time. Dhoni has proved his crtics wrong who were started saying that Dhoni has passed his prime.
After performing brilliantly in the Sri Lanka series, Dhoni played a match winning knock of 79 runs along with Hardik Pandya in the first ODI against Australia on Sunday. His performance with the bat was one of the main reason that the Men in Blue is leading the five-match ODI series 1-0.
With a brilliant spell from Aussie pace bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile, the hosts were reduced to 87/5 when Pandya and Dhoni started to build a much needed partnership. The duo played risk free cricket to take India’s score to 281. Due to a rain interruption Australia target reduced to 164 runs in 21 overs via D/L method. In reply the visitors lost the first ODI at Chennai by 26 runs 26 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis Method.
Ganguly credited Kohli for keeping faith in the former captain and remarked that the relationship between them has in effect helped India go from strength to strength. “When players play for so long, MS has played over 300 ODIs for India, they know how to get runs. More than 9000 runs for Dhoni in one-day cricket and he’ll get a few more by the time he finishes. It’s the captain’s confidence and Virat should get a lot of credit for it because he’s put a lot of faith in Dhoni and that allowed MS to play the way he wanted.”
“Players are made and players are broken by the faith you show in them. I think Virat Kohli is responsible for what we are seeing of MS Dhoni today,” Ganguly told India Today.
‘Pandya’s role model should be Kallis’
Star all-rounder Hardik Pandya scored 83 runs in just 66 deliveries and also took two crucial wickets while bowling to bag the Man of the Match award. According to Ganguly, Pandya has all the potentials to be a player like South African legendary all-rounder Jacques Kallis.
“Pandya getting better and that’s the best part of it. You can see the confidence, because of the performance with the bat, in his bowling. If you do well in one aspect of the game you automatically get better in the other aspect.
“He’s got to think big because the job of an all-rounder is not easy. He’s fit, he works hard and for him, the role model should be Jacques Kallis. I’m not comparing him with the Kallis but he should start looking at putting in performances over a period of 10 years in all formats because he’s got the ability.”
“He’s very important to this squad’s progress in the next couple of years provided he keeps his head on his shoulders and keep the confidence going. The next 15 months, when he goes to South Africa, England and Australia, once he goes past that circle he’ll either become a very good player or he’ll probably start fading away,” Ganguly said.