Known for his carefree and straight forward approach, team India’s former swashbuckling opener Virender Sehwag has once again hits the headline as he revealed that it was Sourav Ganguly, for whom MS Dhoni has become a big player in the world today. He also revealed that it was under Rahul Dravid’s captaincy that MS Dhoni evolved as finisher.
Sehwag, who was a prominent member of the Indian team in the mid-2000s, shed light on how Ganguly played his part in making Dhoni a great player.
“We were experimenting with the batting order at that time. We decided that if we get a good opening partnership then Sourav Ganguly would come at No.3 but if we had a bad opening stand then we would send pinch hitters like Irfan Pathan or Dhoni to accelerate the scoring rate,” Sehwag said.
“Ganguly at that time decided to give Dhoni a chance at No.3 for three or four matches. There are a very few captains who would first give away his own batting spot for Virender Sehwag and then his set spot of No.3 for Dhoni. Had Dada (Ganguly) not done that, Dhoni would not have become such a great player. Ganguly always believed in giving chances to new players,” Sehwag told.
“During Rahul Dravid’s captaincy, Dhoni got the role of a finisher. He got out a couple of times playing a bad shot and he was also reprimanded by Dravid during one instance. But from that instance, he completely changed his approach and became a very good finisher. The kind of partnerships he had with Yuvraj Singh are memorable,” Sehwag concluded.
