Adam Gilchrist Rates MS Dhoni, Steve Waugh as Perfect Skippers

From the early 2000’s till 2010, the Australian team was one of the most formidable sides in the cricketing world.

Australia won the cricket World Cup three times in a row: 1999, 2003 and 2007 and Steve Waugh was their captain when they lifted the trophy in 1999. The tournament was the beginning of the Australian dominance in the cricketing world. The side had names like Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath etc.

Every cricketer in the side had a ruthless approach in every match they played and wore their hearts on their sleeves when they went out on the field. This Australian team brought a revolution in world cricket. One of the major revolutions a player from this side brought was the definition of a wicket-keeper batsman, and the credit goes to Adam Gilchrist.

Adam Gilchrist was a part of all the three World Cup-winning Australian teams. Gilly, as he is famously known, was one of the most humble and honest players on the cricketing field. Gilchrist in an interview said that Steve Waugh and MS Dhoni were the two perfect captains in cricket.

Gilchrist played under Waugh in the 1999 World Cup and had seen MS Dhoni through the ranks all through these years.

“I will give two answers, one from having played underneath and I think Steve Waugh is right there, and I perceive MS (Dhoni), one having not played underneath.  “MS I feel, apart from being a wonderful batsman, wonderful wicket-keeper and a great leader, his greatest quality that I have observed is his calmness under pressure. Of course, he is Captain Cool, his calmness under siege or even when things are going well. Such is the passion for cricket in this country that exuberance can spill out of control, and you can lose track of things but his calmness in any moment, he is able to bring consistency in emotion, and that is admirable.”

On being asked about who he thinks is the perfect ODI and T20 batsman, he said, 

“I think Virat Kohli (perfect ODI player) at the moment. He is unstoppable. AB de Villiers comes to mind (for the perfect T20 player), but I suppose you have to think more all-round so, a guy like Kieron Pollard is pretty really handy.”

He also expressed his views on the Kohli-Kumble fiasco,

“I can only speak from my personal experiences in the teams I have played in. Clearly, in that example, Virat is extremely comfortable with Ravi (Shastri) and vice versa, and so, they are obviously a good match. Clearly, that wasn’t the case with Anil (Kumble) and Virat. I have no idea and don’t have the desire to get into the details of that, but that wasn’t an ideal situation.”