Sachin Tendulkar was left disappointed by India's laborious batting display against Afghanistan and said the middle-order batsmen, especially Mahendra Singh Dhoni (28 runs off 52 balls), lacked positive intent during their World Cup clash at Southampton on Saturday.
"MS Dhoni is a senior player and should show positive intent. Afghanistan's bowling is good but you can't score only 119 runs in 34 overs. He did not show any positive intent against Afghanistan," the batting maestro told India Today after the match.
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India's middle-order failed to fire, as the Gulbadin Naib-led side restricted the two-time champions to 224/8.
With 16 runs to get in the last over, Mohammad Nabi (52 off 55) almost pulled off a mighty upset, before the last-over hat-trick by Mohammad Shami, along with excellent death over bowling by Jasprit Bumrah, saved the day for India.
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"MS Dhoni has the ability to hit but yesterday (June 22) his strike rotation was not good. He faced too many dot balls and this hampered a strong finish for India," Tendulkar said. "The intent could have been much better by the middle-order batsmen.
"I believe MS Dhoni needs to up his ante when it comes to strike rotation in the next matches."
Dhoni (24 off 36 balls) and Jadhav (31 off 48)—the latter eventually scored 52 off 68 balls—added 57 runs off 84 balls for the fifth wicket, thus slowing down the proceedings considerably in the middle overs.
"After Virat got out in the 38th over and till the 45th over we hadn't scored many runs. There were not enough outings for the middle order batsmen till now and that put pressure on them. But the intent could have been much better by the middle-order batsmen," Tendulkar said.
This was the first time India's top-order failed in the tournament although skipper Virat Kohli scored 67.
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Tendulkar hinted that Dhoni should have taken charge as Jadhav's batting was hardly tested in the tournament. The Maharashtra batsman had faced just eight balls (against Pakistan) in the tournament before the encounter against Afghanistan.
"Kedar Jadhav was under pressure, he had not had an outing up until now. He needed someone to take charge of the situation early on but that did not happen.
"Both Kedar and Dhoni were not able to play at the required strike rate that they would have wanted. Those in-between overs could have been better and that is why Kedar was under a bit of pressure," Tendulkar said.
(With PTI inputs)