Dhoni was a great leader and now an ultimate team-man says Shastri

Kolkata, Nov 9 - Indian cricket team head coach Ravi Shastri feels that senior pro M.S. Dhoni is an "ultimate team man", and says some "jealous" people want him to have a "couple of bad days" as they are "waiting to see" his international career come to an end.

"Looks like there are a lot of jealous people around, who just want Dhoni to have a couple of bad days.... There are a few people who are waiting to see the end of M. S. Dhoni. But great players like him decide their own future," Shastri said in an interview to the Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika.

He said the Indian team knew well Dhoni's worth and the criticism against the dashing wicketkeeper-bastsman made no difference to them.

"It (the criticism) doesn't make a difference to me. In our mind we know where Dhoni stands within the team. He is an ultimate team-man. He was a great leader and now an ultimate team-man."

In a dig at some former cricketers and experts who were critical of Dhoni now and have suggested he be dropped from the T20 side, he said: "Not so long ago I used to do television and people used to ask me questions. You need to answer questions to make a show happen.

"Dhoni is a superstar. He is one of our greatest cricketers. So he is always going to be a great topic. He is always going to be a topic because he is a legend. When you have a career as glorious as that, you become a topic on television."

Shastri pointed out that Dhoni, who has retired from Test cricket, has averaged over 65 in One Day Internationals over the last one year and helped India win matches in Sri Lanka and against Australia at home in the last series only.

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IANS