Dhoni is playing for his average : Engineer

[Gambit]

India's wicketkeeping legend Farokh Engineer on Tuesday expressed concerns over Mahendra Singh Dhoni's [ Images ] waning batting skills and called on him to get back to his attacking past to rediscover his form. "I don't know who has been talking to him to get defensive when he is batting. Whenever I talk to Dhoni I always tell him and encourage him to keep up his attacking batting. I want him to keep playing in the same way that has made him MS Dhoni. I also don't know whether he is fully fit," Engineer told rediff.com in Nottingham, on Tuesday. Engineer's concerns were not shocking considering Dhoni's appalling performance with the bat in the ICC [ Images ] World Twenty20 [ Images ] tournament. Dhoni managed just 86 runs in five matches at 21.50 and the Indian team lost all their three matches in the Super Eights to be knocked out of the tournament. "I think he is afraid of giving his wicket away. He is playing more for his averages and he should forget that. He should play his own natural game and we will see a flamboyant Dhoni again," the former India wicketkeerp quipped. But Engineer believes that captaincy is not bothering Dhoni and he is capable of bouncing back in the near future. "I don't think the pressure is getting to him because Dhoni has captained the side well. All of a sudden you cannot become a bad captain overnight. Dhoni has been a lucky captain and a good captain, an attacking captain. I am all praise for his captaincy. Yeah, ok things didn't go our way and it was a setback but he is quite capable of bouncing back and leading India to glory again," the 71-year-old said. Engineer also thinks Dhoni's wicketkeeping skills have suffered during this lean period, which has one of the darkest periods of his career so far. "In this tournament he has not kept wickets properly, he has not captained properly and he has not batted properly. He has just not produced the goods. He is holding his hand up and admitting that he was out of form, the players were out of form but these players are international players and they get enough money. So they must keep that in mind and practice hard and look to come back in form." He simply refused to believe that a talented batting line-up like India threw in the towel so easily against South Africa [ Images ], when they only had to chase a mere 131 for a consolation victory. "They just threw their wickets away against South Africa. Today, I thought they handed the match to South Africa on a platter because we had a great opening partnership between Gautam Gambhir [ Images ] and Rohit Sharma [ Images ]. "Our middle batting was poor and we gave our wickets away cheaply. I cannot believe Dhoni's run out because there was no run in it and he charged down the wicket even though the ball was close to the wicketkeeper," Engineer said.

http://cricket.rediff.com/report/2009/jun/17/dhoni-is-playing-for-his-averages-says-engineer.htm

[fineleg]

in b4 sarpanch fans/defenders malign Farokh Engineer

[umpire]

Farokh Engineer is big Dhoni fan. He is right too some extent. But nobody can play for averages in T20.

[someone]

Good way to come into attention but this is wrong!!!!!!!!!!

[The Outsider]

Jokes?

[cowboysfan]

please.

[Guest gaurav_indian]

please close this thread.

sentence completed.

[MUMBAISKIPPER]

Farokh himself was a wicket keeper..he is a sucking ghost of jealousy.

[Desi Cartman]

MSD should call and personally thank Mr Engineer for his support :finger:

[vvvslaxman]

In 20 average? :haha:

[Ram]

In 20 average? :haha:

Lol, exactly. That’s like saying someone plays for strike rates in tests. :rotfl: Engineer’s an old fart who should stick to making his blatantly obvious statements on Sky Sports with that Delhi University Professor Aashish Ray.

[Sachinism]

When we were leaving late after the Ind-Eng game, we saw Farokh on the stairs, he was quite high up. We just started shouting, "Don't jump Farokh, its OK" Poor guy was left startled lol

[coffee_rules]

Ask Bevan about why it's important to maintain averages in ODIs.

[JayStarz]

Met Farokh in the India v West Indies game, nice guy.

[varun]

Hmm, anyone read the whole article ? Farookh's pretty fair and appreciative of Dhoni (except for the one statement which made the headline)

[JayStarz]

Hmm' date=' anyone read the whole article ? Farookh's pretty fair and appreciative of Dhoni (except for the one statement which made the headline)[/quote'] yeah man.

[flamy]

Good article. Bastardized headline.

[riya]

Meh....

[Guest Hiten.]

in b4 sarpanch fans/defenders malign Farokh Engineer

Hey smartpants, this is the reason why you get on people's nerves. Was this comment really necessary ? Did you even bother reading the article ? If you have nothing to contribute why blabber nonsense like always and derail the thread ? God you ****ing annoying git

[graphic23]

in b4 sarpanch fans/defenders malign Farokh Engineer

Stop trolling. If you have something positive to say, say it. if you have something negative to say, say that. But stop hiding behind the back of someone else's opinion because you're too unsure whether you can justify yours or not.