Time to kick Dhoni out? Twitter reactions
India lost the opening match of the one day international (ODI) series against South Africa by five runs in Kanpur on Sunday, despite a flamboyant 150 by Rohit Sharma. This loss adds salt to the injury of Indian fans who have already had to put up with the team's abysmal performance against the Proteas in the just-concluded T20 series. What's worse, Mahendra Singh Dhoni - the captain of the Indian team in the limited over formats - is facing a lot of flak. For one of India's most successful captains, who had led India to World Cup crowns in both ODI and T20s, life may seem to have come a full circle. However, perhaps the biggest reason Dhoni is finding himself out of favour of the Indian fans, who are never known to have a lot of patience, is that he is no longer able to clinically finish off matches as he used to, as Sunday's match proved.
The result: the Indian ODI and T20 captain was roasted on Twitter, though there were some voices in his support. Here are a collection of tweets and it all looks a bit ominous for Dhoni:
Like all great sportsmen, Dhoni has to live with being compared to himself at his prime......
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 11, 2015In Dhoni's current struggles you realise the enormity of what he was doing. A younger man should be standing up to play that role.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 12, 2015Batting in the last 10 is damn tough...but Dhoni will always be judged by his own standards. You pay a huge price for your success 2/2
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) October 11, 2015Does seem that Dhoni's prowess as a finisher are declining, but I think he is more victim than villain in team's inadequacies to win. Agree?
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) October 12, 2015Very few finishers in the history of the game have been as good as Dhoni. Won't be easy to find someone else nearly as good.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 11, 2015Dhoni the batsman is not firing like he used to is a big reason why Dhoni the Captain is not winning as he used to. Today for example.
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) October 11, 2015Pls RT this if you think that Dhoni should be dropped from the team immediately.
— Kamaal R Khan-KRK (@kamaalrkhan) October 11, 2015Dhoni explains what went wrong: Rohit was trying to win it with his bat, while Dhoni was trying to win it with his thigh pad.
— Nitin Sundar (@knittins) October 11, 2015Hey. Dhoni is still the best finisher in the world, okay. It's just that he finishing other things these days. Like our hopes.
— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) October 11, 2015Dhoni is scoring less runs and more 'you know' these days.
— Keh Ke Peheno (@coolfunnytshirt) October 11, 2015Nobody can deny the big things he has done for India, but it's not happening now for MS #Dhoni. #INDvSA
— Jaspreet Sahni (@jaspreet_sahni) October 11, 2015Sports are a form of Epic theatre & successive losses can be a stage setting for a heroic revival.Keep going Dhoni; 'DEFEAT defeat'
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) October 11, 2015