MS Dhoni was the face of the Indian T20I Team but the format as a whole. He was the skipper of the team that won the T20 World Cup in 2007. Later, MSD achieved elite status with a few IPL wins and some terrific knocks in the format. When it came to captaincy, he is still regarded as the best that the format has seen. It was in 2019 in Bengaluru against Australia that Dhoni played his last T20I. Here, we take a look at two players you might not know played in MS Dhoni’s last T20I in 2019.
1) Vijay Shankar
With Hardik Pandya falling vulnerable to injuries, India had to inevitably try out other options for this role. Vijay Shankar got nine games to prove his potential in this format but failed to justify his selection.
In this particular game, Shankar opened the bowling for India. He bowled four overs, giving away 38 runs while picking two wickets. After some of his failed efforts with the bat, India had to drop him. The likes of Shivam Dube and Venkatesh Iyer were also tried in the same way but in vain.
2) Siddarth Kaul
Siddarth Kaul is one of the players you might not know who played in MS Dhoni’s last T20I in 2019. After his brilliant show in the IPL with Sunrisers Hyderabad, the Punjab pacer got a chance with Team India. However, he played just three games. In this match, too, he did not do well.
Kaul was a bowler who did well with his knuckle balls and slower deliveries. While it resulted in wickets in certain games, this tactic failed in other stadiums. Moreover, he did not do well in the chances he got. Therefore, he had to be dropped from the squad. Despite doing well again in domestic cricket, Kaul has not got another chance, as yet.
