Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir is not someone who minces his words. He has once again taken a dig at former India skipper MS Dhoni. Gambhir said Dhoni didn’t give enough quality players to Virat Kohli like Sourav Ganguly, who produced world-beaters.
Ganguly took over the charge amid all the concussion. India were right at the bottom in the middle of fixing charges when Sourav Ganguly took over the reins. He captained India to 21 wins in 49 Tests. In 146 ODIs, the Men in Blues won 76 games under him. They also won the NatWest Series in 2002 and made it to the final of the 2003 World Cup where they lost to Australia.
Dhoni didn’t live quality players – Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir feels MS Dhoni didn’t leave any quality players for Virat Kohli when he took over the job in 2017. The cricketer-turned-politician believes India only had Kohli and Rohit Sharma following the retirement of legends while Sourav Ganguly, who led India for six years.
“When MS Dhoni finished [his captaincy stint], he hasn’t given enough quality players to Virat Kohli, apart from Virat Kohli himself and Rohit Sharma, or Jasprit Bumrah now. There are not too many world-beaters or probably people who win you tournaments,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Gambhir as saying.
“But look at what Sourav Ganguly gave to Indian cricket: Yuvraj Singh, Man of the Series in two World Cups [Yuvraj was only Man of the Series in the 2011 World Cup; Shahid Afridi was Man of the Series in the 2007 World T20], Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag – these kinds of world-beaters,” he added.
Meanwhile, speaking about MS Dhoni, he is the only skipper in history to win three ICC titles. In 2014, Dhoni handed the Test captaincy to Kohli. In 2017, Kohli took over as the full-time captain. Since then, Kohli has led India to 33 wins from 55 matches the most by any Indian skipper.