Ever since MS Dhoni played his last game for India during the World Cup, people have started speculating his retirement from the game. The Ranchi-born kept wickets for India over 14 years and will leave a very intriguing legacy behind. It will extremely difficult for any youngster to fill in the shoes of the legendary cricketer.
Dhoni’s style of keeping and guiding the bowlers with advice is difficult to replace, his accuracy with the DRS is next to no one in the world. Apart from his wicket-keeping skills, Dhoni is arguably the greatest finisher of the game of the current generation. Thus, finding an apt replacement for the legend even more difficult.
Even players like Dinesh Karthik, Parthiv Patel could not match MS Dhoni’s brilliance behind the stumps. With 829 dismissals under his name, filling in the shoes of ‘Captain Cool’ will be a mammoth task. The likes of Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson have been doing round to replace the legend. Recently, KL Rahul has also joined the mix with his stellar show since his promotion as the wicket-keeper.
But statistically, who is best suited to replace MS Dhoni in the Indian team? Let us take a look:
Rishabh Pant
The youngster from Delhi, who made headlines after the 2017 IPL season for his hard-hitting abilities just like Dhoni has been part of the Delhi Capitals franchise since 2016. Since then, he has played some crucial knocks for the franchise. He usually bats at No.4 and has scored 1736 runs in 54 matches which includes a century and 11 fifties.
Pant was also drafted into India’s World Cup 2019 squad after Shikhar Dhawan was ruled out of the tournament. However, he failed to make an impact as he scored just 116 runs in the 4 games he played. The youngster’s ODI record hasn’t been that impressive as he averages just 22 in the limited opportunities he has got. Also, recently he was dropped from the ODI side in favour of KL Rahul.
In 2018, during the Australia tour, Rishabh Pant had equalled the world record for most catches in a Test by a wicket-keeper in a Test. He is also the fastest Indian keeper to claim 50 dismissals. Despite al the statistics baking the Delhi-born cricketer, Pant is yet to live up to his expectations in international cricket.
KL Rahul
The Karnataka born batsman has been India’s 2nd choice opener for a very long time. He started batting in the middle order during the Australia series after Pant was ruled out due to concussion.
Rahul averages 50.57 when he has batted in the middle-order for India scoring 354 runs in 11 matches. It includes one 100 and two 50s, the hundred came in the recent tour of New Zealand. KL Rahul also captained India in one innings during the 2020 New Zealand tour when Kohli was unable to take the field.
He first kept wickets for India during the last session of Day 4 of the 2nd Test between against Sri Lanka when keeper Wriddhiman Saha has picked up a hamstring injury. Rahul also looked settled in the last few limited-overs games and currently looks the first-choice keeper in white-ball cricket.
Sanju Samson
The youngster is yet to make his ODI debut for India but has shown huge potential while playing for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. He averages just under 30 in List A cricket for Kerala and is hailed as an upcoming star for India.
The 25-year-old has played 93 games in the IPL and has scored over 2000 runs in the cash-rich league which includes two centuries and ten fifties at a strike of over 130. Samson was previously the vice-captain of India U-19 team during the 2014 U-19 World cup played in the UAE.
Despite showing great potential in domestic cricket, Sanju Samson has struggled at the highest level. In the four T20Is, he has only knocked 35 runs and the chances have gone begging. But Sanju has looked calm and composed while talking about guarding the stumps.
Who is best suited to replace MS Dhoni?
Af you observe the IPL statistics of all three players, there is very little to differentiate between them. Kl Rahul averages 42 despite opening the batting most of the times. Rishabh Pant’s strike rate is better than Samson & Rahul, mainly because he bats lower the order at 5 and 6.
This rules Samson out of the race as per the statistics because despite playing over 90 matches in the IPL, he averages just 27. We have often seen Samson start off really well but he hasn’t been able to convert those starts majority of the times.
This leaves us with Pant & Rahul, both of whom are part of India’s one-day and T20 plans. But we at Cricfit feel that Rahul has a slight upper hand over Pant because of his overall experience as captain and wicket-keeper for Kings XI Punjab. The Karnataka-born cricketer also has an upper hand considering his recent form. Pant is still young and has a lot of time to develop his game.
