Shoaib Akhtar on MS Dhoni and Kohli:
All over the country – cricket fans are struggling with questions regarding the future of India’s legendary wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni. At the same time, Shoaib Akhtar, the former Pakistan fast bowler, thinks India has discovered a suitable replacement for MS Dhoni in Manish Pandey in the limited-overs cricket.
“Hindustan ko akhir Dhoni ka replacement mil gya,” Akhtar said on his own YouTube channel after India’s energetic comeback success over Australia in three-match ODI series. “Finally India has got Dhoni’s replacement. They have found a solid player in Manish Pandey. Shreyas Iyer is also looking a complete player and these add profundity to India’s batting,” he said.
Shoaib also said “Virat Kohli is an extraordinary leader. He has a very tough mentality. He never gave up easily”
Since the 2019 World Cup semi-final loss to New Zealand, Dhoni has not played for India. He was also excluded recently from the BCCI central agreement list for October 2019- September 2020 period.
This is not the team which I had played with:
“These players have played a great deal in the IPL, they realize how to deal with pressure, they could not care about huge names and consequently, end up playing significant innings,” Akhtar said about Iyer and Pandey.
Unfortunately, Manish Pandey has not contributed much with the bat during the Australian Series. And the current Indian top-order batsman like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Shikhar Dhawan was in great touch during the last two matches.
“This is the new Indian team, they are not playing like my days of playing” – said Akhtar.
Pandey got the spotlight for his awesome fielding skills where he took a staggering one-handed catch to send away David Warner.
The Indian team has currently left for New Zealand where they will play five T20Is, three ODIs, and two Test matches.
