Former India opener Gautam Gambhir said world cricket missed witnessing MS Dhoni continuing to bat at No. 3, saying the wicketkeeper-batsman would have been a ‘completely different player’ as a top-order batsman.
Gautam Gambhir said MS Dhoni would have the ‘most exciting cricketer’ had he continued to bat at No. 3 instead of going on to become the captain of the Indian cricket team.
MS Dhoni, who made his India debut in 2004, grabbed the attention of the cricket world when he was pushed to bat at No. 3. Two of his memorable and ruthless hundreds came at the No. 3 position against Sri Lanka and Pakistan in 2005.
While he made a mark as an aggressive No. 3 batsman, Dhoni played only 16 ODIs at the top-order spot, scoring 993 runs at an average of over 82 and a strike rate of close to 100. The majority of his 10,773 ODI runs came at No. 5 and No. 6 as Dhoni went on to become a calm and calculated finisher after taking over the mantle of captaincy.
“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,” Gautam Gambhir told Star Sports ‘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.”
However, MS Dhoni had trained with Chennai Super Kings in the lead-up to Indian Premier League in March. With IPL 2020 remaining suspended, uncertainty over Dhoni’s future is among the widely-debated subjects in the cricket fraternity.
