MS Dhoni sacrificed his personal runs for team's trophies: Gautam Gambhir

MS Dhoni finished his career with over 10,000 runs in ODIs for India.

Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir lavished rich praise on MS Dhoni, India’s 2011 World Cup and 2007 T20 World Cup winning captain, saying that he could have made many more runs than he did in his career if he was not the captain.

This came as a shock for many fans as Gambhir has been a staunch critic of Dhoni, despite the fact that these two came together to take India out of trouble in the final of the 2011 World Cup against Sri Lanka in Mumbai and took the team to glory. Gambhir made 97, while MS Dhoni got all the credit with his 91* and the six to win the final.

Gambhir emphasized that Dhoni's captaincy duties frequently obscured his individual batting accomplishments and that, if he hadn't been in charge, he might have broken a number of ODI records.

“Because of captaincy, he couldn’t achieve what he could have achieved as a batter. A lot of times as captain you have to keep the team first. If MS was not captain, he could have batted at No 3. I am sure he could have broken several ODI records. He has won a lot of trophies, but individually he sacrificed his international runs for trophies,” Gambhir said on Star Sports.

MS Dhoni was a blessing for Indian cricket: Gautam Gambhir

Furthermore, Gautam Gambhir called MS Dhoni a blessing for Indian cricket and showcased how his batting prowess helped India become a superpower on the field as well. Gambhir emphasized Dhoni's exceptional capacity to go beyond conventional cricket duties.

He pointed out that Dhoni bucked convention by being an excellent batter first and a wicket-keeper second, although Indian wicket-keepers were traditionally regarded for their talent behind the stumps and then their batting skills.

“Earlier, they were keepers first and batters later, but MS was a batter first and then was a wicketkeeper. It was a blessing for Indian cricket that in MS Dhoni, we got a wicket-keeper-batter who can win you matches from No 7, because he had that power game,” Gambhir concluded.