Bhubaneswar: Former Indian captains Dilip Vengsarkar and Ajit Wadekar batted for skipper MS Dhoni, on Wednesday, who has been facing a lot of criticism of late for the cricket team’s failures.
“At the moment Dhoni is the only one in form. He should continue… India do not have an option,” Vengsarkar told reporters after reaching here along with Ajit Wadekar to attend the golden jubilee of a city-based sports club.
On the performance of Pakistan, Vengsarkar said, “Pakistan played extremely well. I think they played better in all departments of the game.”
“India need to improve a lot as the coming matches with England are very important,” the batsman of yesteryear added.
Terming India coach Duncan Fletcher as “less than average”, he said the team has been losing ever since the Zimbabwean took over.
Vengsarkar, a former chairman of the selection committee, also held excess cricket as one of the factors responsible for the recent failures of India.
“Excess of matches like World Cup, Tests, ODIs and T20s is responsible to a certain extent,” he said.
Wadekar also praised Dhoni for his performance.
“He has been responsible for victory of Team India on many occasions,” Wadekar said.
Meanwhile, in Rajkot, the Alastair Cook-led England team arrived along with a couple of Indian players for the first ODI of the five-match series to be held on January 11.
“The entire England team led by captain Alastair Cook and two Indian players – Ishant Sharma and Gautam Gambhir – arrived in a special plane from New Delhi, while rest of the players, except Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja, would come later in the day,” an official of Saurashtra Cricket Association said.
England were set to practice on Wednesday evening while the Indians will start on Thursday. (PTI)
