We had seen a lot of former players who raised questions over the place of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the T20 International side when he had an off day during the second game against New Zealand in Rajkot. The matter has brewed up since then and Indian captain Virat Kohli and the head coach Ravi Shastri were the ones to back Mahi during this time.

Ravi Shastri said that Dhoni at the current age of 36 can still outrun and outperform younger ones who are around 26. Virat Kohli also had said earlier that Dhoni was targetted just because of his age. Ravi Shastri went on to take a sly dig at former players asking them what they were doing when they were 36.

Speaking to IndiaToday, Shastri said: “We are not stupid. I have been watching this sport for the last 30-40 years. Virat has been a part of this team for a decade now. We know, at this age, he (Dhoni) can beat players aged 26. People who talk, forget that they played the game.”

Shastri added, “If they look at themselves in the mirror and ask the question, ‘what they were at the age of 36?’. Would they have run two runs faster? But the time they finish two, this guy will run three. Then he has won only two World Cups and averages only 51. Until today you don’t have a wicket-keeper to replace him in the one-day team”.

Shastri also said that Dhoni is still one of the best in the world in this game. “He is still one of the best around, not only in the Indian team but in the world. Some of the things you see with him are not sold in the market. You will not get it anywhere else. The fact that he does not play Test cricket means he should be playing as much cricket as possible till the World Cup in 2019,” he added.

There have been various instances when this questions came up regarding Dhoni’s place in the squad and he choose to answer with the bat rather than words, his recent performance in Dharamshala, where the whole of the team struggled to get going, was a perfect example.