Former Indian captain MS Dhoni is arguably one of the most successful captains to have ever led the Men in Blue. He has possibly won all trophies that a captain could dream of. But the former Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir who once served as his lieutenant claimed that Dhoni was a lucky captain and became successful as he had to just carry forward a well-set team built by Sourav Ganguly.
Gambhir, who was a contemporary of MS Dhoni has had numerous differences of arguments with the former Indian captain during and after his playing days. To add to that never-ending rift, Gautam Gambhir in his recent interview claimed that Dhoni was ‘very lucky’ as a captain as he got a very amazing team in all three formats of the game.
He further claimed that Dhoni had to just carry forward the amazing team built by the now BCCI president and former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly through immense hardships. He added that this was what helped him in winning all these accolades.
“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.” Gambhir said on Star Sports show Cricket Connected.
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Apart from winning all major ICC trophies, India under Dhoni won the ICC test mace in 2009. Gautam Gambhir who was the star performer for India with the bat in that year credited the legendary pacer Zaheer Khan for Dhoni’s success as Test captain during that period.
He added that Zaheer was probably the best world-class bowler India has ever produced. The left-arm fast bowler has 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.
“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,” he added.
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