‘Dhoni should continue till World Cup’

NEW DELHI: Former India batsman Virender Sehwag has backed his former teammate MS Dhoni to stay in the ODI team until next year’s ICC World Cup.

Although Dhoni, who will be 38 by World Cup, has had an incredibly successful ODI career for India, he has endured a relatively lean spell in the one-day team of late.The former captain recently came under criticism in India’s ODI series against England for not accelerating early enough in his team’s ultimately unsuccessful run chase at Lord’s.

Whilst there is no indication from anyone within India’s management that Dhoni’s place is under threat, Rishabh Pant’s brisk maiden Test century in India’s final Test of their tour to England has put a degree of pressure on Dhoni.

However, Sehwag thinks that Dhoni should definitely remain in the team until the end of next year’s World Cup.“In my personal opinion, MS Dhoni should continue till the 2019 World Cup,” he said.

“Even if you play Pant in ODIs from now, he won’t be able to play more than 15-16 ODIs till the World Cup which is far less compared to Dhoni, who has played over 300 ODIs. I would want Dhoni to continue till the World Cup,” added Sehwag.“Pant is someone who can hit sixes at his will, but when you talk about Dhoni, he has won matches single-handedly for India.”