"Single-handedly raised the bar for the team" - Sanjay Manjrekar showers praise on Indian legend as the best captain

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has lauded legendary skipper MS Dhoni for his leadership skills. The cricketer-turned-analyst credited him for his ability to convert an average team into winners. He further commended the 44-year-old for his ability to handle pressure in finals and get the best out of the players.

Notably, Dhoni led India to victories in the 2007 T20 World Cup, the 2011 ODI World Cup, and the 2013 Champions Trophy.

Manjrekar said Stalin Mathias on his YouTube channel:

“9:01 (No.1 captain) – I would rank Imran Khan from the days gone by, and after that, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, as to what he was able to do as a captain. I thought he single-handedly raised the bar for the team and got even, maybe an average team sometimes, an inexperienced team, for example, in that 2007 T20 World Cup to go and win titles.”

“And I think he was different when it came to performances on the big stage. He played the final just like he would play one of the earlier league matches. I think the moment, just that whole stay that you have for the big finals, can get to a lot of players and definitely gets to a few captains as well. MS was different in that regard,” he added.

Apart from international cricket, MS Dhoni also led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to five IPL trophies.

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“I remember feeling very very proud at the time” – Sanjay Manjrekar lauds former India captain for his heroics in the 2014 Australia tour

Sanjay Manjrekar further lauded former India captain Virat Kohli for giving it back to the opposition during the 2014 Australia tour. Calling him a mentality monster, he credited him for scoring four centuries in the series. Manjrekar said in the same video:

“20:40- (Mentality monster) Virat Kohli, for me, is at the top. Indian cricket have had greats, mentally strong, who are not demonstrative it was not obvious to see. They all had their aggression from Sunil Gavaskar, Tendulkar, and Kapil Dev. It was not that visible. Virat Kohli was one of the first guys that I saw, and that was during the 2014 trip to Australia after England, where he had a difficult time at the battle. He went to Australia and got four 100s. And I remember him taking on the Australian players head-on and gave it back to them verbally, and he walked the talk as well.”

“And I thought at that time that it was great because Indian cricket didn’t have any leading figure being like this. Pakistan in the past used to have a Javed Miandad who did that to take on Denis Lilly, and the things that he did, plus a great batter. So, that was nice to see. I mean, it’s not really about how you get runs, it’s about how many runs you get. That’s the real value. But he did both Virat Kohli and, I remember feeling very very proud at the time,” he added.

Notably, Virat Kohli had an average performance during the 2014 England tour, managing just 134 runs in 10 innings. He then amassed 692 runs in eight innings at an average of 86.50 during the 2014-15 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.