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Legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar drew comparisons between India’s two World Cup-winning captains – MS Dhoni and Kapil Dev. He also heaped praise on Dhoni for having groomed lots of young players, including current India captain Virat Kohli.
Gavaskar told India Today that both Dhoni and Kapil had very similar approaches to the game, both loved being in the thick of things and wanted to bring laurels to the country. He also compared how both of them come from cities, which haven’t produced many cricketers – Dhoni’s hometown is Ranchi and Kapil Dev’s, Chandigarh.
Gavaskar, the first player to get to 10,000 Test runs, said the fact that both of them hardly expressed any emotion made it easier for their teammates.
“If a captain is a little more irritable at a catch being dropped or a misfield, then the players get even more nervous. And that’s where Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni scored. They just controlled their emotions so well, that the players did not feel affected at all and played their own game freely,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying by India Today.
MS Dhoni’s contribution has been beyond the field: Gavaskar
Calling MS Dhoni a “leader”, the former India opener gave him credit for not just grooming youngsters and spinners, but someone of the stature of Virat Kohli. And, Kohli himself has admitted in the past that he has learnt not only captaincy, but also about the game in general from Dhoni.
Talking about an all-time India XI, Gavaskar said both Dhoni and Kapil would stake a claim for captaincy.
“But when it comes to winning World Cups, I think MS Dhoni has just a little edge over Kapil because he has not just won the 50-over World Cup but also the T20 World Cup. So I think he would be right up there,” Gavaskar concluded.
Rightly so, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the only captain in history to have won all three ICC trophies – World T20 in 2007, World Cup in 2011 and Champions Trophy in 2013.
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