Indian wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni once again faced the backlash from the Twitterati after his slow knock of 28 off 52 against Afghanistan which India won by a narrow margin of 11 runs in a nail-biter in Southampton on Saturday.

Fans on Twitter expressed their disappointment and criticised Dhoni for his batting performance.

Undistinguished inning by Dhoni. Struggled against spin, but more importanty, even in rotating rotate strike

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— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) June 22, 2019

“Undistinguished inning by Dhoni. Struggled against spin, but more importantly, even in rotating the rotate strike [sic],” wrote cricket expert Ayaz Memon.

“MS Dhoni looks older than my grandmother who is close on 80. No offence,” tweeted another user.

“MS Dhoni dropped ‘Ganguly’ because he thought ‘Ganguly’ was aged and at that time’ Ganguly was a far better batsman than Dhoni is for the last couple of years. Dhoni should retire immediately for the betterment of Indian cricket,” said another user on the micro-blogging website.

Not only Dhoni rather all the Indian batters, except skipper Virat Kohli struggled to hit the ball from the middle of their bat while facing Afghanistan’s bowlers, especially the spinners. The Afghan spinners spun a web around the Indian batsmen and restricted them to only 224/8 in their full quota of 50 overs.

It was a brilliant bowling performance by the Indian bowlers which helped them defeat Afghanistan by 11 runs in the last over-thriller at the Rose Bowl Cricket Stadium.

Dhoni came into bat at number five when India were midway of their innings and consumed 52 deliveries for the 28 runs he scored with a strike rate of 53.85. During the course of his inning, the 37-year-old could manage only three boundaries. What irked the fans more was his inability to rotate the strike in the middle overs which only increased the number of dot balls, hence creating more pressure for the batsman on the other side.

Many times before this, Dhoni has been at the receiving end for his dipping strike rate. Last year, during the three-match ODI series against England, the World Cup-winning captain was even booed at Lord’s during one of the games when India were chasing 323.