3 Indian Players Who Were Supported By MS Dhoni But Their Career Ended Under Virat Kohli
Published - 11 Oct 2022, 07:28 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 07:06 AM
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Both MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli have been two of the most successful captains ever for India. The former had a dream run as the leader of the side winning all three major ICC titles. Also, Dhoni has seen the team through the transition phase and set up the foundation for Virat’s captaincy future. Players like Hardik Pandya, and Jasprit Bumrah amongst a few others made their debut towards the twilight of Dhoni’s captaincy stint.
However, the current crop of cricketers are mainly considered to be Virat’s boys and the players MS Dhoni dealt with a few years ago are different. During the transition phase, numerous domestic performers got opportunities at the highest level. A few senior cricketers also enjoyed great backing under MS and did relatively well but failed under Virat Kohli. Let’s have a look:
3 Indian Players Who Were Supported By MS Dhoni But Their Career Ended Under Virat Kohli
Amit Mishra
Amit Mishra posed severe talent, but his career never flourished in the presence of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. A good leg-spinner, Mishra was seen as Anil Kumble’s predecessor.
Although he got few opportunities under the leadership of MS Dhoni with Kohli taking over the scheme of things, the chances are hard to come by for the Delhi cricketer.
Mishra has played 22 Tests for India along with 36 ODI and 10 T20Is. With age not on his side, it is unlikely that Amit Mishra will make a comeback in the Indian team.
Gautam Gambhir
The opener from Delhi, Gautam Gambhir is one of the prominent Indian openers of this century. Possessing the talent to pace his innings according to the situation, Gambhir had a rare quality.
Moreover, how can someone forget his contribution to the ICC World Cup final against Sri Lanka in 2011? His patient knock took India to the doors of victory before Dhoni finished things off in style.
Gambhir had a significant fallout with Kohli, his statemate, as he fell out of bounds from the Indian Cricket team. And, now with Shikhar Dhawan sealing the opening slot, there are fewer chances of Gambhir coming back in the scheme of things.
The southpaw represented India in all the formats playing 58 Tests, 147 ODIs, and 38 T20I games.
Ravichandran Ashwin
One can’t argue much about Ravichandran Ashwin‘s prowess in red-ball cricket in the last 8 to 9 years. The topic of discussion here is only white-ball cricket (ODIs and T20Is). There was a time when the Indian limited-overs squad would have been incomplete without Ashwin under MS Dhoni. He was quite economical and street-smart and the fact that India lacked options helped him.
Ashwin would operate at all stages of the innings including opening the bowling across all the formats. Dhoni backed him extensively and he was even India’s leading T20I wicket-taker until a few years ago. Even now, he is there right at the top in the shortest format. Under Dhoni, he played 78 ODIs and 42 T20Is picking up 105 and 49 wickets respectively.
But his bowling style didn’t suit Virat Kohli’s aggressive captaincy approach. He didn’t pick many wickets as per the captain’s liking and thus was ousted. Under Kohli, Ashwin played 20 ODIs and accounted for 25 scalps. In the shortest format, he only played one game and went wicketless
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