While his batting in the ongoing World Cup continues to draw a lot of criticism, India wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni earned the admiration of many Indian fans after images of him spitting out blood that he sucked from his bleeding thumb went viral on social media. The former India captain is known for his toughness and being one of the fittest players in the game.
But his form of late in the World Cup has raised questions about his ability and whether he is well past his sell-by date. But one thing that Dhoni hasn't lost is his stoicism when it comes to injuries. The 2011 World Cup winning captain has hardly ever missed a match with injury and remains one of the fastest runners between the wickets.
The surfacing of the pictures have given Dhoni fans ammunition to attack those who have been critical of his batting. Many tweets have lauded the former Test captain for batting on despite an injury and then coming out to keep wickets as well.
Interestingly, earlier in the tournament, Wahab Riaz decided to play in his team's match against Afghanistan and not only did the fast bowler perform with the ball, he came out to bat and smashed some key boundaries to take his team to a nervy win – one that kept them alive in the tournament.
However, bowling and batting with a fracture can still be managed by top level cricketers if the pain isn't too great and the dominant hand isn't the damaged one. But keeping wickets with a cut finger must have been unpleasant. If Dhoni had wanted to, he had a player in the side to keep wickets in his stead.Rishabh Pant was on the field for India. But as would be expected from the tenacious MSD, he kept the wickets himself for the entire duration of the match.
