Ex-Cricketer Makes Big Comparison Between Dhoni And India Star: 'People Who've...'

Ex-Cricketer Makes Big Comparison Between Dhoni And India Star: 'People Who've...' Robin Uthappa defends Suryakumar Yadav's 2026 T20 World Cup selection, comparing his form to MS Dhoni in 2011. Share Your Feedback + Follow usOn Google Former India cricketer Robin Uthappa has defended T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav’s selection for the men’s 2026 T20 World Cup, despite his statistically underwhelming 2025. Uthappa cited the example of MS Dhoni, saying that even the legendary skipper wasn’t at his best throughout the 2011 World Cup, until everything clicked in the final and he won the Player of the Match for his 91* (79). Suryakumar has scored only 218 runs at an average of 13.63, while striking at 123.16 this year. Most of his troubles have come against pacers - a huge fall from grace for the once top-ranked T20I batter in the world. Questions have been raised about his need to be in the team, more so after the team dropped his deputy, Shubman Gill, from the squad with less than two months to go to the World Cup, for similar issues of form. Recommended Stories “I remember that Dhoni wasn’t in the best of form," Uthappa said on his YouTube channel. “If I’m not wrong, I don’t think he got more than one or two fifties in the entire World Cup, and the final was one of those. He was not in very good form. It’s happened before, where teams have carried important players who were not in good form because of what they can potentially do; they’re match-winners." Uthappa even went on to repeat Suryakumar’s pet line of late: he’s not out of form, but just out of runs. “I don’t think SKY is out of form. People who haven’t played cricket at a certain level will not understand when we’re saying he’s not out of form, he’s out of runs. Ollie Pope is out of form, Shubman Gill looks out of form. In this series, I’ve watched SKY bat in the nets. Boy, he was hitting shots in fog. He was hitting full-length balls over third man for six. Like what he did in the IPL, he was doing that, off the front foot. You can’t do that if you’re not in form," he said. The 2026 T20 World Cup will be played between February and March. Click here to add News18 as your preferred news source on Google. Cricket News , Live Cricket Scores , and trending updates, along with top stories across Sports News , Football News , WWE News , and other Sporting Events . Follow News18 on Google . Join the fun, play games on News18 . Download the News18 App to stay updated! Terms of Use and Privacy Policy .

Preview: ~455 words