Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly feels Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be a better player after being relieved of captaincy duties in the Indian Premier League.
After leading Rising Pune Spuergiant to a disappointing seventh-placed finish in their inaugural edition, Dhoni was replaced with Steve Smith as the skipper of the team for the ongoing season. And while the decision to sack one of the most successful skippers in the history of Indian Premier League has not gone down too well in the cricketing fraternity, Ganguly feels that it would be blessing in disguise for his former India teammate.
The former India batsman said Dhoni batting higher up the order will be good not only for him but also for his team. The statement has come after Dhoni led the Rising Pune Supergiant to a thrilling 6-wicket against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 22. Coming in to bat at number 4, the 35-year old scored an unbeaten 61 off just 34 balls including a last ball four to take his team home.
“A captain sees you differently from the way you see yourself. You need a captain who can push you. MS Dhoni will become a better player post captaincy,” Ganguly told India Today. “Being pushed up the order will be beneficial to the team.”
“He felt that he was more useful at No.6; I felt differently – the pressure is no different but at that time, you have more deliveries,” Ganguly added.
Earlier, Dhoni had faced widespread criticism for managing just 61 runs from five matches at a poor strike-rate of 87.14. Ganguly had also criticised Dhoni and had even expressed his doubt over Dhoni’s batting abilities in the shortest format of the game.
“I am not too sure if Dhoni is a good T20 player. He is a champion ODI player but when it comes to T20 cricket, in 10 years, he has got one fifty and that’s not the best record,” Ganguly had said.
Ganguly faced the flak from Dhoni faithful after the latter’s match-winning knock against Sunrisers Hyderabad but the former India star is not paying too much heed to it.
“MS Dhoni has created that sort of a fan-following.
“People will say – why do you criticise him? It was the same for me when I was dropped in 2006. I don’t have any problem with that,” he said.