MS Dhoni, AB de Villiers still have lot to offer, feels Lance Klusener
Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) has hit new highs. Many of these young cricketers haven’t played First-Class cricket, and they get to rub shoulders with the bigwigs of the game. Lance Klusener is in middle of his second season as coach for Lyca Kovai Kings. In the late 1990s, he was limited-overs’ premier all-rounder and played massive role in South Africa’s spectacular show in 1999 World Cup. Rated as one of the best finishers of the game, the former all-rounder feels MS Dhoni and AB de Villiers still have lot to offer as cricketers. ALSO READ: AB de Villiers wanted to retire from Tests much earlier, says Jonty Rhodes
“I feel de Villiers still has a lot of cricket left in him. He is right up there with the best in the world. All players go through lean patches no matter how good they are. You have to remember that he is not playing much Test cricket now. So, the volume of cricket he is playing is not as much as it used to be. Sometimes, that can lead to you taking your eye off the ball in terms of preparation and that is the adjustment he needs to make,” Klusener told Cricbuzz.
There are calls for dropping Dhoni from India’s limited-overs set-up, but Klusener dismissed the theory and said India would be ‘foolish’ to get rid of Dhoni at this stage.
“Like de Villiers, MS Dhoni too seems to be struggling to rediscover his old touch. Do you think the time has come for him to hang up his boots? It’s always easy to call for somebody’s stepping down. You have got to look at who is going to fill that gap?Is that person going to be better than Dhoni straightaway? He is one of the best finishers to ever play the game. Why would you want to get rid of him? I think India would be foolish to do so. He still has got a lot to offer,” he added.
South Africa lost a Test series in England 1-3. Klusener called that as a “tough period”. South Africa, as a side, haven’t lost a lot overseas and in fact, between 2006 and end of 2015, they did not lose a single overseas Test series. He reasoned out the absence of the likes of AB and Dale Steyn amongst the reasons.
“It’s a tough little period which all teams go through. There is enough talent in South Africa. They are going through a transition. Most teams that have been consistently successful have a core of players that play across all formats of the game. That is something South Africa will be trying to establish. You can’t just fill the spots that AB and Steyn will vacate in Test cricket,” said Klusener, who was more popular by his nickname ‘Zulu’ during his heydays as a cricketer.