World Cup 2019: 5 reasons why MS Dhoni coming in at No.7 against New Zealand was a tactical blunder

#3 Protecting Dhoni from taking the toughest responsibility

India v New Zealand - ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 Semi-Final

MS Dhoni has played the most number of matches and has better experience of such situations than anyone playing in this World Cup, let alone the Indian team. Dhoni has a pretty solid defensive game and he is, by a country mile, the best middle-order batsman of the team. When the going gets tough, it is the big players who put their hands up and try to face the challenge. But on 10th July, what we witnessed was a very surprising sight.

In a very similar situation, but on a very different stage, seven years ago, India were 29-5 against Pakistan when Dhoni came out and blocked everything initially enroute an unbeaten century.

Cricket experts and analysts all over the world raised their disappointment over the decision and due to such severe criticism, Ravi Shastri was forced to give out the exact reasoning behind the move.

He said ''the last thing we wanted was to MS get out early, that would have killed the chase''. The probability of such an event happening was realistic, however, no team can win big matches with such a defensive mindset.