‘MS Dhoni won a lot of trophies but…’: Gautam Gambhir on Dhoni’s performance

“Because of captaincy, he couldn’t achieve what he could have achieved as a batter. A lot of times as captain you have to keep the team first. If MS was not captain, he could have batted at No 3. I am sure he could have broken several ODI records. He has won a lot of trophies, but individually he sacrificed his international runs for trophies,” Gautam Gambhir said.

The former Indian opener mentioned that MS Dhoni was a batter first and then a wicketkeeper which was a blessing for Team India.

“Earlier, they were keepers first and batters later, but MS was a batter first and then was a wicketkeeper. It was a blessing for Indian cricket that in MS Dhoni, we got a wicketkeeper-batter who can win you matches from No 7 because he had that power game,” he added.

India’s  pinnacle success under MS Dhoni

In MS Dhoni’s captaincy, Team India achieved pinnacle success across all formats of the game: maintaining the top position in Test rankings for a remarkable 18-month period commencing in December 2009, clinching the 50-over World Cup in 2011, and securing the T20 world championship during his inaugural stint as captain in 2007.

In the ODI format, MS Dhoni played 350 matches for India and made 10,773 runs with the highest score of 183*. He smashed 10 centuries and 73 half-centuries during his ODI career for Team India. In Test format, MS Dhoni played 90 matches and made 4,876 runs. He has 6 centuries and 33 half-centuries in Test cricket with the highest score of 224. In the T20 format, MS Dhoni made 1,617 runs in 98 matches with smashed 2 half centuries.

Updated: 18 Sep 2023, 07:22 PM IST