After Rishabh Pant notched his maiden test century in England, there has been a wide debate on his selection in the India ODI and T20 team to replace Dhoni, who hasn’t been in the best of forms. Dhoni was unable to strike at a healthy rate in England, for which he was booed for the first time in his entire career.
Amid all these discussions, former India opener Virender Sehwag has stepped forward and opined that Pant won’t be able to gather much experience in the 50-overs format for the 2019 World Cup and hence, Dhoni should be trusted for cricket’s biggest extravaganza.
I want Dhoni to continue till 2019 world cup- Sehwag
“In my personal opinion, MS Dhoni should continue till the 2019 World Cup. 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,” Sehwag was quoted as saying on India TV.
“Pant is someone who can hit sixes at his will, but when you talk about Dhoni, he has won matches single-handedly for the country. So Pant has the right kind of the temperament to be a perfect heir for him. I want Dhoni to hand the baton to Pant when he hangs his boots,” he added.
The social media was buzzing after Dhoni took the match ball from the match officials in the third and final ODI of England tour which raised questions of his retirement. Dhoni later clarified that he wanted to show the match bowl to bowling coach Bharat Arun. He wanted to show him the wear and tear the ball had endured, to get a general idea of what the conditions were like.
He later spoke at an event and said that he’s not going anywhere till the 2019 world cup.
