“You cannot calculate Dhoni’s value,” Gavaskar

Sachin expects MSD to play anchor’s role

MS Dhoni from now on will be more like an anchor, who would “control the game till the end”, reckons Sachin Tendulkar.

“Tuesday contribution was good. In the first match, I felt he was a little rusty. He was not being able to hit the ball where he wanted to and that can happen to anyone. He walked out in the second match thinking differently and from ball one, he looked a different player,” Tendulkar said on his app 100MB. Dhoni of old was both an anchor as well as a finisher but Tendulkar is happy to see him as someone who will be able to control the game till the end.

“Dhoni is someone who loves to play a few dot balls, understand the wicket, how the bowlers are bowling and likes to take the game till the end. That is exactly what he did. He is someone who is going to control the game from one end,” the highest run-getter in international cricket observed.

 “Please leave the gentleman alone,” former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, insisting that the veteran’s value to the team cannot be calculated despite the lack of consistency.

Dhoni turned back the clock with a matchwinning half-century against Australia in the second One-dayer in Adelaide, even hitting one of those trademark last-over sixes. The well-timed knock eased the pressure he has been under due to inconsistent form.

“My prayer is to please leave the gentleman alone and he will continue to do well. He is also not getting younger. So the consistency you might have at a younger age will obviously not be there and you have to bear with that,” Gavaskar told a leading TV channel from India.

The 37-year-old two-time World Cup winning former captain’s future is one of the most debated topics in Indian cricket right now but Gavaskar feels he deserves better with the World Cup around.