India suffered their first bilateral ODI series defeat in over two years on Tuesday when England beat the visitors by a big margin of 8 wickets in the third and deciding match of the three-match ODI series. The Indian batsmen failed to put up a big score in order to put England under any sort of pressure, which was reflected in the fact that there was only one fifty-plus score in the Indian innings - 71 by captain Virat Kohli.
Though the Indian fans don't mind their team losing to a strong English side, what took them by surprise was the visual of wicketkeeper MS Dhoni taking the match-ball away with him after the defeat. This has sparked rumours across social media that the veteran might be retiring from ODIs. A few even claimed that Dhoni might have already played his last international match.
The above speculations notwithstanding, Dhoni also received a lot of flak from certain quarters for his slow batting - 42 off 66 balls - which confounded a number of viewers. During the ODI series, the ex-India captain scored a total of 79 runs off 125 deliveries with a Strike-Rate of 63.20 - a statistic alien to modern day finishers. A feature of his batting during this series has been the number of dot balls he consumed even when the team needed to score at a higher rate.
This compelled a number of fans to call for his sacking or retirement from ODIs.
There is no doubt that this debate will continue in the coming days with India not scheduled to play any white-ball cricket before the Asia Cup in September. It remains to be seen whether Dhoni can find ways to silence his detractors or succumb under pressure and hang his boots.
