I rate MS Dhoni higher than Ricky Ponting as captain: Shahid Afridi

Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi is not one to mince his words especially when it comes to Indian cricketers. The former Pakistan all-rounder has had plenty of animated battles with India on the cricket field. However, when asked to choose the better captain between MS Dhoni and Ricky Ponting, Shahid Afridi surprisingly picked the former.

In an interactive session with his fans on micro-blogging site Twitter, Shahid Afridi picked MS Dhoni as the better captain over the former Australian skipper. Explaining the reasons behind doing so, Shahid Afridi said that the former India captain built a team with youngsters.

“I rate Dhoni a bit higher than Ponting as he developed a new team full of youngsters,” wrote Afridi to a fan’s question.

I rate Dhoni a bit higher than Ponting as he developed a new team full of youngsters

— Shahid Afridi (@SAfridiOfficial) July 29, 2020

Both MS Dhoni and Ricky Ponting have an excellent record as international captains. MS Dhoni’s accession as skipper of the Indian team also led to the exit of legends like Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar.

The wicket-keeper batsman laid the foundation of the a quality side, promoting the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja – all of whom form the core of the current Indian side.

MS Dhoni is the only captain to win all three ICC tournaments

MS Dhoni is the only captain to have all won all three ICC tournaments – 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 ODI World Cup, and 2013 Champions Trophy. Under his leadership, India also attained the No.1 spot in the ICC Test rankings in 2010.

MS Dhoni led India in 60 Tests and won 27 of them while in ODIs, he was in charge of 200 games, winning 110 of those. MS Dhoni was also the captain in 72 T20Is and tasted victory in 42 of those matches.

Ricky Ponting, on the other hand, led Australia to successive ODI World Cup titles in 2003 and 2007.

The former Austalian captain has the best win percentage among all captains in world cricket. In the 324 matches as skipper across formats, he won 220, lost just 77, tied 2 games and while 13 ended up as draws.

However, Ricky Ponting had the advantage of leading a side with legendary cricketers like Matthew Hayden, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and Glenn McGrath which made his task much more easier in all conditions.

During the same interaction one of his fans asked Shahid Afridi his phone number.

“Lala Your Phone number ...BTW I want to meet you at least once in my life,” tweeted one of the fans.

While Shahid Afridi could have opted to ignore the question, he showed his witty side as he wrote, “12345678910.”