"Dhoni scored in the 2011 final but a team only wins when.."- MS Dhoni's former teammate joins hands with Gautam Gambhir in bashing the former Indian captain

Former Indian seamer and swing king during his time, Praveen Kumar whose last appearance for the Men in Blue came in 2012, supported Gautam Gambhir in his criticism of MS Dhoni. Kumar, while speaking to a local Journalist, shed light on India’s 2011 World Cup winning campaign being entirely credited to Dhoni who scored the winning runs of the final with a six off Nuwan Kulasekara.

Praveen Kumar was asked about his views on Gautam Gambhir’s comment about India being an “individual obsessed” cricketing fan base that worships a particular and not the team. Gambhir, who will be mentoring the Kolkata Knight Riders this IPL season, had criticized social media maniacs and the broadcasters for constantly highlighting MS Dhoni’s six.

Gautam Gambhir’s problem is that the media has been solely focusing on Dhoni’s glorifying six and discarding the contribution from the rest of the players. He doesn’t want the limelight for the WC win, even if he deserves it. It was Gambhir who pulled the team out of a tough situation after India lost openers Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar early on by scoring a marvelous 97 off 122.

Praveen Kumar agrees with Gautam Gambhir’s take

Praveen Kumar, who made his debut under the captaincy of MS Dhoni, had full agreement with Gautam Gambhir that it was not Dhoni alone who led the team to CWC glory after 28 years. Kumar stated that Cricket is not an individual sport like Motorsports or any Combat sport and that India’s win wouldn’t have been possible without the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Gambhir, and Zaheer Khan among others.

He also highlighted that Gambhir consistently scored in India’s 2007 and 2011 World Cup wins whereas MS Dhoni scored runs only in the 2011 final and also reminded the numbers registered by Zaheer and Yuvraj.

“Gautam bhai is absolutely right. This is not wrestling or any other individual sport. One man cannot win you a match. Yuvraj Singh had taken 15 wickets and scored so many runs. Zaheer Khan took 21 wickets. Gautam Gambhir scored runs in the 2007 and 2011 finals.”

“Dhoni scored runs in the 2011 finals. A team wins only when at least three of its batters are in form and at least two bowlers are picking wickets. Be it a Test, ODI or T20I. One player can’t win you tournaments.” – Praveen Kumar told Shubhankar Mishra.

Praveen Kumar claims hero culture is not the right tendency

The 37-year-old went on to further join forces with Gautam Gambhir by saying that this hero culture in Indian cricket fans is not something that has started since 2011. That it has been there way before since the 1980s when the great Kapil Dev was given all the credit for the 1983 World Cup win at Lord’s.

Kumar stated that it’s not the right tendency from the Indian fan base who tend to fall head over heels when a cricketer gets branding from media outlets. He also slammed those cricketers who think they are bigger than the sport.

“The hero culture has always been there in Indian cricket. I think it’s been there since 1980s. This is a wrong tendency. Cricketers at times become bigger than cricket. The one who has more brand support gets more limelight.” – Praveen Kumar concluded.