Ex-Indian captain Sourav Ganguly revealed his stunning take on MS Dhoni’s before and after gameplay. Ganguly, fondly known as the ‘Prince of Kolkata’ opined that he liked MS Dhoni’s phase 1 when he had long hair and whatever the keeper-batter hit flew away for a six.
Why did Sourav Ganguly say ‘I didn’t like MS Dhoni’?
Dhoni, who emerged in the international arena in 2004, didn’t enjoy a promising debut as he was out for a first-ball duck via a run-out. But the subsequent years saw a mercurial rise as not only a bona fide six-hitter and match-winner but also as captain. As a captain, he is the only one to date to win all three ICC trophies. Nevertheless, his gameplay became a lot more circumspect at the latter part of the career. Speaking about the 44-year-old on Raj Shamani’s podcast, Ganguly claimed:
“I have rarely seen a player who hits a six like MS Dhoni. When he came into the Indian team when I was the captain, he used to hit a lot of sixes. After that, I didn’t like MS Dhoni from phase 2. I liked MS Dhoni from phase 1. He used to hit sixes. He used to hit sixes for fun, whenever he picked up the bat. I didn’t like MS Dhoni who later on used to take singles and doubles. Anyway, later on became such a big player, such a big captain for India.”
Comparing Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni’s captaincy stats and runs
While both Ganguly and Dhoni were highly influential captains and took Indian cricket to great heights, there is still disparity as far as their captaincy statistics go. Dhoni captained the national side to 27 Test wins in 60 games, while Ganguly led Team India to 21 victories in 49 of them. The keeper-batter also clears Ganguly in ODIs, ushering the Men in Blue to 110 wins in 200 matches, while the latter has only 76 wins in 146 games.
Ganguly also didn’t captain India in T20Is, a format in which Dhoni has a World Cup alongside 41 wins in 72 games. Nevertheless, the 53-year-old clears the keeper-batter in runs for Test and ODI, amassing 11363 50-over international runs and 7212 in the longest format. Dhoni, meanwhile, finished his ODI career with 10773 runs and the Test with 4876.
