Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has praised MS Dhoni and described him as a selfless captain. According to Gambhir, Dhoni sacrificed his international runs and focused more on leading India to major ICC trophies.
Gambhir has been an outspoken critic of Dhoni in the past. He has often said that one man failed to win the World Cup for India [in 2011]referring to his 91* in the final against Sri Lanka.
However, in a recent video on Star Sports, the former cricketer praised the Indian legend for putting the team before himself.
“His captaincy prevented him from achieving what he could have achieved as a batsman. Often as a captain you have to keep the team first. If MS was not captain, he could have batted at number 3. I am sure he could have broken several ODI records. He has won many trophies but individually he has sacrificed his international runs for trophies,” Gambhir opined.
The 41-year-old then described Dhoni as India’s first wicketkeeper who could change the game with his batting.
Elaborating on his thoughts, Gambhir said:
“Earlier, they were goalkeepers first and batters later, but MS was a batsman first and then a wicketkeeper. It was a boon for Indian cricket that in MS Dhoni we had a wicketkeeper-batsman who can win your matches at No. 7 because he had that power game.
One of India’s most successful ODI batters, Dhoni has scored 10,773 runs in 350 matches at an average of 50.57, with 10 hundreds and 73 fifties.
“Rohit Sharma is Rohit Sharma today because of MS Dhoni” – Gambhir
During another interaction on Star Sports, Gambhir opined that Dhoni has had a big role to play in the success of current Indian captain Rohit Sharma.
Speaking after Rohit became the second-fastest batsman to score 10,000 runs in ODIs, the former opener said:
“Scoring 10,000 runs was not easy for him. I have seen a lot of ups and downs. After seeing that phase, Rohit as captain will support youngsters who are going through a difficult period. Rohit Sharma is Rohit Sharma today because of MS Dhoni.
“MS has continuously supported him in his first difficult phase. If he wants to leave a legacy, not in terms of runs but as a captain, a lot will depend on how he supports the young players. It will be interesting to see how he looks after the upcoming players,” the 41-year-old added.
Rohit led Team India to a 10-wicket win in the 2023 Asia Cup final against Sri Lanka in Colombo on Sunday.
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