Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly feels that MS Dhoni should continue to bat at the number four position after he guided the ‘Men in Blue’ to a series-clinching win against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Friday.

Dhoni struck a magnificent 87* to power India to a seven-wicket win in the third and the final match of the series as the visitors won their first-ever bilateral ODI series Down Under.

Following the win, Ganguly heaped praise on the wicket-keeper-batsman and said that Dhoni should continue to bat at number four position in the upcoming matches.

“The way Dhoni has batted in the series, we have seen him play like this after a long time. India have played well and again won a series 2-1 after being 1-0 down. A lot was said about Dhoni after the Adelaide ODI, where he batted slowly but we spoke about how the innings will give him confidence and that is exactly what happened, “ Ganguly told India TV.

“I think Kedar will play No.5 and Dhoni will play at No.4. So I think India will go with this combination only because you gave someone an opportunity and they grabbed it. So, Kohli at 3, Dhoni 4 and Jadhav at 5 followed by Karthik.”

“No.4 is right for Dhoni because it gives him time to settle in and score runs and build an innings. So this combination is fine,” he added.

It was a brilliant performance by MS Dhoni as he scored 87 off 114 balls to guide India to a historic series win over the Aussies. It was his third consecutive fifty in the series and it came as no surprise that the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman received the Man of the Series award for his efforts.

At 37 years and 195 days, Dhoni became the oldest Indian cricketer to win the Man of the Series award. Earlier, the record belonged to Sunil Gavaskar who achieved the feat against Sri Lanka in 1987 at the age of 37 years and 191 days.

First Published: Jan 19, 2019 08:50 IST