Former Indian captain MS Dhoni missed out a big milestone as he didn’t get the opportunity to bat in the 5th and final match of the ODI series against Windies in Thiruvananthapuram. While the visitors were bundled out for just 104 runs after opting to bat first, the hosts went on to overhaul the target with 9 wickets in hand. Although the win put the series in India’s favour with a 3-1 result, what made fans unhappy was the fact that skipper Virat Kohli didn’t let Dhoni score that 1 run which would have seen him reach 10,000 runs for the Indian team in ODI cricket.
With the next ODI series that India will feature in is scheduled to be played in Australia, starting January 12 next year, it means that the Ranchi-born wicket-keeper batsman has no option other than waiting for more than 2 months to reach the milestone and end 2018 on 9,999 ODI runs for the national team.
While many fans suggested that Dhoni should’ve made to even open the innings for India as it wasn’t as if India had a big total to chase. Even if that sounded outrageous to a few, Dhoni could’ve been sent at No. 3 spot after Shikhar Dhawan was dismissed early.
Seeing none of these options materialise, a section of Dhoni fans expressed their disappointment on Twitter as India claimed a 9-wicket win while the 37-year-old was denied an opportunity to reach the milestone that Kohli had in the same series.
It isn’t like Dhoni isn’t a part of the 10,000-run club in ODI cricket. The former captain has scaled the Mt. 10k but his total tally includes 174 runs that he had scored for Asia XI against Africa XI in a 3-match series back in 2007. Dhoni’s current overall runs tally ODIs is 10,173 – of which 9,999 runs have been scored for India.
Cricket expert Harsha Bhogle had also tweeted to issue a clarification around the subject. His tweet read: “To clear the confusion, MS Dhoni has 10,173 ODI runs but 174 of those were in a strange tournament called the Afro-Asia Cup. For India, he has made 9999. It is a staggering number.”
Once Dhoni adds 1 more run to his tally in ODI cricket, he will become the 5th cricketer to score 10,000 runs for Team India.
