India's batting coach Sanjay Bangar Monday joined the players in backing Mahendra Singh Dhoni and expressed surprise that the veteran is frequently criticised for his strike rate.
Dhoni scored 42 off 31 balls against England in the World Cup on Sunday, but many questioned his lack of intent during the death overs of a game that India lost by 31 runs.
"I'm surprised that this question continues to come up every now and then. He's doing the job for the team and overall we're very happy with the intent he's batting with," Bangar said on the eve of the match against Bangladesh.
"Except for one odd innings (28 off 52 balls against Afghanistan), he has always performed his role. Five out of seven games he has done the job for the team," he said.
To support his argument, Bangar cited a couple of Dhoni knocks that bailed the team out of difficult situations.
"If you see the earlier games, against South Africa he stitched together a partnership of 70 with Rohit. After that what was required of him against Australia he did that.
Also Read
"In Manchester on a difficult track (against West Indies), he got a vital 58 for us. Here also he was striking the ball really well," Bangar said, defending doggedly, a quality he possessed during his playing days as a batsman.
He also didn't feel that there was lack of intent from Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav during the last few overs.
"I don't think so, because if you look at the way they bowled towards the end, they used the dimensions really well and created difficult angles for our batters to hit.
"In those large boundaries and with the type of balls they were bowling - slower bouncers, a lot of into the wicket deliveries, slower balls. I just felt maybe in the last one or two overs, the difference between runs required and balls left were a bit too much."
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content