We Should Only Pray That MS Dhoni Is Fit Till 2019 World Cup: Virender Sehwag

While Mahendra Singh Dhoni has divided the cricketing fraternity into two halves over whether he should continue till the next World Cup, former India opener Virender Sehwag feels the World Cup-winning captain is irreplaceable at least till the 2019 World Cup.

With Dhoni not being at his usual best in recent times and the next World Cup just a couple of years away, there have been calls to replace the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman. However, Sehwag, while admitting that the young Rishabh Pant is a good prospect, said that the team management should think of replacing Dhoni after the next World Cup.

“I don’t think anyone can replace Dhoni at this point of time. Rishabh Pant is good but he would also need time to replace him. But that can only happen after 2019. It’s then when we should think about Dhoni’s replacement. Till then let Pant gain experience,” Sehwag told PTI.

“We should not worry about whether Dhoni is scoring runs or not. We should only pray that MS Dhoni is fit till 2019 World Cup. The experience that he has in the middle and the lower middle order, no one has that,” he added.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, chief selector MSK Prasad had said that Dhoni is not an automatic choice in the team anymore and that the selectors would have to look out for alternatives if the senior batsman does not perform.

“Discussions happen about everybody. It is not just MS Dhoni (or anybody else). When we pick, when we talk about combinations, we talk about everybody. Whenever a player keeps ageing, for example, I was just reading Agassi’s book, Open, his life actually started after 30 years. Till then he won two or three titles. His actual life started after that. He lived with media pressure, ‘When are you going to retire?’,” Prasad had said.

“But he played till 36 and he won so many Grand Slams. So you never know. If he (Dhoni) is delivering, why not? If he is not, we will have to look at alternatives,” he had added.