Sourav Ganguly Reacts After Mayank Agarwal Gives Him The Credit For MS Dhoni's Debut In International Cricket

It has been more than 15 years since MS Dhoni made his debut in international cricket under the captaincy of the legendary Sourav Ganguly. It was a debut to forget as he was run-out for a duck. But it took his just four more matches to prove his worth as he played a historic knock of 148 against Pakistan in just his 5th ODI and the rest is history.

While MS Dhoni has always been hailed as a self-made man thanks to his humble roots, Sourav Ganguly also gets the credit by many for handing the wicketkeeper-batsman a chance in the Indian team. The former India captain, who is currently serving as the president of BCCI, picked Dhoni ahead of the likes of Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel and his decision turned out to be a masterstroke.

India opener Mayank Agarwal recently reminded Sourav Ganguly that ‘his word got Dhoni picked in the team’ and the former cricketer agreed to it. He, however, did not take credit for the same and said that it was just his job. The legendary batsman then went on to lavish praise on Dhoni.

“That’s true but that’s my job. Isn’t it,” said Sourav Ganguly while speaking to Agarwal for his show #DadaOpensWithMayank.

“That’s every captain’s job to pick the best and make the best team possible. You go by your instincts, you go by your faith on the player that he will deliver for you. I am happy that Indian cricket got a Mahendra Singh Dhoni, because he is unbelievable,” he added.

Further when Agarwal said that Dhoni is the best finisher, Ganguly said:

“One of the great players in the world I would say, not only a great finisher. Everyone talks about the way he finishes lower down the order, [but] he batted at number three when I was the captain and got 148 against Pakistan in Vizag. He’s fantastic. I always believe that he should bat up the order. The best players can find the fence under pressure consistently and MS Dhoni was one of them.”

"I'm happy that Indian cricket got a Mahendra Singh Dhoni, because he is unbelievable," @SGanguly99 to @mayankcricket on #DadaOpensWithMayank #HappyBirthdayMSDhoni @msdhoni pic.twitter.com/KCua8qq4hu

— BCCI (@BCCI) July 7, 2020

Dhoni is indeed one of the greatest players to have played for India. In fact, he is one of the most decorated wicketkeeper-batsmen in the history of the game. The World Cup-winning captain is the third in the list of most dismissals as wicketkeeper. Apart from Mark Boucher and Adam Gilchrist, he is the only wicketkeeper to have more than 800 dismissals in international cricket.

With the bat, he is one of the very few players in the history of the game who have scored more than 10,000 runs in ODIs. In Tests, he has scored nearly 5,000 runs while in T20Is, he has more than 1,600 runs.

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