MS Dhoni would have 'broken many records' had he batted at No 3, says former opener Gautam Gambhir
Mumbai/UNI: Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir believes MS Dhoni could have been a more prolific batsman and would have broken many records had he not captained India and continued to bat at number 3 throughout his career.
Since making his debut in 2004, Dhoni has established himself as one of the best captains across all generations. However, when he started out his cricketing career, he was nothing more than an exceptional talent in the country, after being spotted for his unorthodox batting technique.
Incidentally, his first success came in at No 3 in the 2005 home contest against Pakistan. Dhoni had slammed his maiden ODI century against Pakistan in Vizag in 2005 when he notched up a brilliant knock of 148 runs off 123 balls laced with 15 fours and 4 sixes.
However, the talented youngster from Ranchi did not bat a lot in top-order throughout his career as he transformed himself into one of the best finishers in the game after taking over as captain of the Indian team across formats.
With his calculative strategies and fearless hitting, Dhoni won numerous matches for India as a finisher.
However, Dhoni’s former national teammate Gambhir has reckoned that Dhoni would have scored more runs against the then quality of bowlers that he faced.
"Probably world cricket has missed one thing... that is MS (Dhoni) captained India and did not bat at No. 3. Had MS batted at No. 3, probably world cricket would have seen a completely different player," Gambhir said on Star Sports show 'Cricket Connected'.
"Probably he would have got many more runs, broken many records. Forget about records, they are meant to be broken. He would have been the most exciting cricketer in the world had he not captained India and had he batted at No 3.
MS Dhoni batting at No 3 on flat wickets with the quality of bowling attack now in world cricket... look at Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and West Indies in the current situation, with the quality there is no international cricket, MS Dhoni would have broken most of the records," he added.
Former Indian captain MS Dhoni is widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketers ever to have played the game. He also holds the record for being the second-highest run-getter as a captain in ODIs.
The veteran wicket-keeper batsman scored 6641 runs in 200 ODIs as captain and is behind only former Australian captain Ricky Ponting on the list of highest run-getters as captain in ODIs.
He is also remembered as one of the finest captains of the Indian cricket team as he led India to World Cup wins in T20 World Cup 2007 and ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. He was also the captain of the Indian team which won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013 and the number one ranking in Test match cricket.
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