“He sacrificed his international runs for trophies”: Gautam Gambhir commends MS Dhoni’s batting position change.
Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has expressed his admiration for MS Dhoni, characterizing him as a selfless captain. According to Gambhir, Dhoni made a conscious choice to prioritize leading India to major ICC trophies over his personal international run-scoring achievements.
It’s worth noting that Gambhir has been a vocal critic of Dhoni in the past, particularly highlighting that the 2011 World Cup victory was a collective team effort and not solely due to one individual, alluding to Dhoni’s crucial unbeaten 91* in the final against Sri Lanka.
However, in a recent video segment on Star Sports, the former cricketer offered praise to the Indian cricketing legend for his unwavering commitment to the team’s success over personal glory
Gautam Gambhir said “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.”
The 41-year-old went on to underscore Dhoni’s unique role as the first Indian wicketkeeper who had the ability to influence the outcome of a game with his batting prowess, saying
“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.”