Former Indian opener and World Cup winning player Gautam Gambhir has praised his teammate and then captain MS Dhoni for his selfless behaviour. Gambhir stated that Dhoni could have scored more runs if he batted up the order but he sacrificed his place so India could win trophies. The veteran also said that Dhoni could have more runs if he was not leading the Indian side.
“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 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,” Gambhir said in a talk show with Star Sports.
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It was a blessing to have Dhoni in the team: Gautam Gambhir
Speaking more on Dhoni, Gambhir said that it was a blessing for team India to have a wicketkeeper-batter like Dhoni. “Earlier, they were keepers first and batters later, but MS was 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,” Gambhir added.
Dhoni represented India in 350 ODI games and scored 10,773 runs at an astonishing average of 50.58. He finished with 73 fifties and ten centuries with his strike rate being 87.56. In T20Is, the 42-year-old played 98 matches and amassed 1617 at a strike rate of 126. He also played 90 Tests for India and scored 4876 at an average of 38.09.
