Legendary wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni is unarguably India's most successful captain across formats having achieved everything there is to achieve in his illustrious career.
From winning the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan to being the only captain in the history of cricket to win all ICC trophies – T20 World Cup, 50-over World Cup, ICC Champions Trophy, Dhoni has etched his name in the history books.
Before current captain Virat Kohli, Dhoni was also India’s most successful captain in Test cricket, having also lifted the ICC Test mace for the first time in the history of Indian cricket.
Reflecting on Dhoni’s success as India captain, former Indian cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir said his former teammate was 'very lucky' as a captain who got a very amazing team in all three formats of the game which helped him in winning all these accolades.
He further claimed that Dhoni reaped the benefits of the hard work that was put in by one of the greatest Indian captains and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly.
Gambhir said on Star Sports show Cricket Connected: “Dhoni has been a very lucky captain because he got an amazing team in every format. Captaining the 2011 World Cup team was very easy for Dhoni because we had players like Sachin (Tendulkar), (Virender) Sehwag, myself, Yuvraj (Singh), Yusuf (Pathan), Virat (Kohli) so he had got the best teams. Ganguly had to work very hard for it, and as a result, Dhoni won so many trophies.”
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The former opener also credited the legendary pacer Zaheer Khan for Dhoni’s success as Test captain while hailing him as India’s “best world-class bowler”. Zaheer played 33 Tests under Dhoni and picked up 123 wickets to help India to reach the top of the ICC Test rankings for the first time in 2009.
Gambhir signed off by saying, “The reason Dhoni became such a successful captain in Test cricket is because of Zaheer Khan. He was a big blessing that Dhoni got, for which credit goes to Ganguly. According to me, Zaheer has been India’s best world class bowler,”
(With Hindustan Times Inputs)
