Asia Cup 2018: Selectors weren’t happy with five changes in the team for Afghanistan game

It’s almost a fortnight since India played Afghanistan in that thrilling Super Four match in Asia Cup and now, it has been learnt that the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) selection committee wasn’t impressed by the team management’s decision to rest five regular players from the playing XI for the game in Dubai.

India roped in KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Siddharth Kaul, Deepak Chahar and Khaleel Ahmed in place of top five players, including the stand-in captain Rohit Sharma. The veteran wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni chipped in as the skipper for that game.

It was a special moment for him as the captain since it was his 200th match at the helm, a milestone which remained elusive for a long time. He became the first player from the sub-continent and third overall to lead in 200 ODIs, the other two being Australian Ricky Ponting (230) and New Zealander Steven Fleming (218).

“The selectors are not pleased that wholesale changes were rung in for the match and both stand-in captain Rohit Sharma and vice-captain Shikhar Dhawan sat out with MS Dhoni forced to be captain again, out of nowhere,” a top BCCI official was quoted as saying by India Today.

Dhoni’s 200th game as captain ended in a tie

Dhoni’s 200th game as the captain, however, ended in a tie as India failed to overhaul Afghanistan’s score of 252 and were bowled out for the same score despite the openers giving them a solid platform. The second-string Indian side found Afghanistan’s spirited fight challenging towards the end and could not give the finishing touches.

It was the fifth tie for captain Dhoni, a unique record again. He has 110 wins and 74 losses, the second-best winning record as a captain after Ponting (165).

The tie though did not hurt the team’s chances for qualifying for the final of the Asia Cup as they had already made it by defeating Bangladesh and Pakistan. Afghanistan, on the other hand, were already out of the tournament by then by losing two close games against Pakistan and Bangladesh and had only pride to play for.

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