India captain Virat Kohli defended wicketkeeper batsman MS Dhoni after the former captain’s strange innings in the second ODI against England at Lord’s on Saturday, which the visitors lost by 86 runs.

The Indians were 140-4 chasing 323 and needing 183 runs from 23 overs when Dhoni walked out to bat. But instead of taking on the bowling, Dhoni made a sedate 37 off 59 balls with just two hits to the fence.

India were dismissed for 236 off the last ball of the match as England leveled  the three-match series 1-1.

England Test pacer Stuart Broad, commentating on Sky Sports, said: “Today he (Dhoni) never really quite got going and he had no fluency to his batting. Two boundaries in 59 balls and you’re not going to win too many games doing that.”

Even former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh said: “Today was definitely a different Dhoni we got to see. He normally does take his time, but then once he’s in he looks for the boundary. But, today he was short of partners, though he still probably defended too many balls.”

However, Kohli, quoted by AFP, defended his senior players by saying: “This comes up again and again when he is not able to play in the normal way he does. It’s very unfortunate people just jump to conclusions very quickly.

“When he does well, people call him the best finisher ever and when they don’t go well, they all pounce on him. We all have bad days in cricket and today was a bad one for everyone, not just him.

“Also, you want to take the innings deep; you don’t want to just lose by 160-170 runs, and he has the experience, but some days it just doesn’t come off. Other people jump to conclusions, but we don’t. We totally believe in him.”