Sachin Tendulkar Disapointed With MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav

Team India escaped an upset against the underdog Afghanistan at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 on Saturday after posting a below-par score of 224 runs in the first innings. Following the 11-run victory over Afghanistan, Master Blaster, Sachin Tendulkar questioned the intent of MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav in the middle order.

MS Dhoni scored with a very slow strike rate of 53.85. He scored only 28 runs in 52 deliveries which slowed down the run rate of the Indian innings. On the other hand, Kedar Jadhav showed some intent at times but he also scored runs with a low strike rate of 76.47. However, he guided the Indian innings scoring 52 runs in 68 balls with the wickets falling on the other hand.

Indian middle order, starring MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav failed to counter the Afghanistani spinners in the middle. The two shared a 57 run partnership from 86 deliveries for the fifth wicket. Sachin Tendulkar was disappointed with the slow batting display by the ‘Men in Blue’.

Sachin Tendulkar said in a statement to India Today that he was disappointed with MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav. He said, “I felt slightly disappointed, it could have been much better. I was also not happy with the partnership between Kedar and Dhoni, it was very slow. We batted 34 overs of spin bowling and scored 119 runs. This was one area where we didn’t look comfortable at all. There was no positive intent.”

Sachin Tendulkar suggested that the Indian middle-order batsman didn’t get too many chances till now and so the pressure was on MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav against Afganistan. However, he feels that the intent could have been better by them.

He continued, “There were more than 2-3 dot balls. After Virat got out in the 38th over and till the 45th over we hadn’t scored many runs. There were not enough outings for the middle order batsmen till now and that put pressure on them. But the intent could have been much better by the middle order batsmen.”