Former Indian Captain Described How He Unearthed the Talent of Dhoni

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly has been always known to unearth talents, back them up and transform them into match-winners for the team.

Cricket news: Ganguly was even willing to give up his batting position for Dhoni

Many players in the team have always acknowledged about Ganguly’s contributions in their career. Ganguly himself admitted that he had always picked players who could make a winning impact for the team.

Among many such findings, one of the cricketers who rose to unbelievable fame after debuting under Ganguly is former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Dhoni came from Ranchi, the part of India which has never produced a cricketer, and later became the best wicketkeeper in the world and one of the most successful captains who captained his country for over a decade.

Initially Dhoni batted at No. 7 position in his first couple of international games, but it was Ganguly who promoted Dhoni to No. 3 which changed his career.

“When Dhoni came into the team in 2004, he played the first two matches at No.7. We were playing Pakistan at Vizag even when the team was announced after the team meeting Dhoni was at 7,” Ganguly said talking on Breakfast with Champions.

“I was watching news sitting in my room and thinking how to make him (Dhoni) a player, I knew he had a lot of potential. Next morning after we won the toss I thought let me send him at 3 will see whatever happens,” he added.

Dhoni had struggled in the previous two games, having got run out for a duck in his debut match. But after being promoted to No. 3 at Vizag, Dhoni smashed the Pakistani bowlers and scored 148 and helped his team to post a massive total of 356 and later won the game by 58 runs.

The No. 3 position in the team was reserved for Dada, but he stayed back and gave the youngster a better opportunity to see if he can get the best results out of it.

“He was sitting in shorts as he knew he had to bat at 7, I told him ‘MS you have to bat at 3’, he said what about you, I said ‘I’ll bat 4 you go in at 3’, he scored 170 (MS Dhoni scored 148 in the game). I think that’s how you can make players, you can never help them improve by pushing them down the order, you have to push him forward only then you will get to know if he has it in him,” Dada said describing how he asked Dhoni to go out and bat before him.

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