In an interview, former India batsman Gautam Gambhir speaks about the transformation of Team India during its inheritance phase
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (L) is flanked by teammate Gautam Gambhir as they arrive for practice at the National Cricket Stadium in Karachi on June 23, 2008. Pic/ AFP
Former Indian cricketer, was one of the main factors in Team India's transformation phase after Sourav Ganguly stepped down as captain and MS Dhoni began his new role in the team.
Speaking exclusively on Star Sports show Cricket Connected, former India batsman Gautam Gambhir spoke about the transformation of Team India during its inheritance phase, "The reason Dhoni became such a successful captain in Test cricket is because of Zaheer Khan. He was a big blessing that Dhoni got, for which credit goes to Ganguly."
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Gambhir continued, "According to me, Zaheer has been India’s best world-class bowler. Dhoni has been a very lucky captain because he got an amazing team in every format. Captaining 2011 World Cup team was very easy for Dhoni because we had players like Sachin, Sehwag, myself, Yuvraj, Yusuf, Virat, so he had got the best teams, while Ganguly had to work very hard for it, and as a result, Dhoni won so many trophies."
Gambhir on Dhoni the roomie
"We were roommates for more thana a year. We remember sleeping on the floor, because we had a very small room and the first week, we were discussing how to make this room look bigger.
. So, we removed the bed out of the room and then we slept on the floor on the mattresses and it was a great moment because we both were young," he added. In a month and all we used to talk about was hair because he had those long hair and how he would maintain that hair and all that stuff.
Meanwhile, former South Africa captain and current Director of Cricket South Africa, Graeme Smith, said it is hard to find anyone in world cricket that didn't get along with Dhoni. "I seriously doubt that you probably find anyone in world cricket that didn't get on with MS. He went about his business. He was calm, he was collected," said Graeme Smith.
In an earlier interview in June, Gambhir addressed the impact that former India captain and batsman Rahul Dravid had on the country's cricket. Gambhir said, "I made my one-day debut under Sourav Ganguly and my Test debut under Rahul Dravid. It is so unfortunate that we do not give Rahul Dravid enough credit for his captaincy. We only talk about Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, now we talk about Virat Kohli, but Rahul Dravid has been a fabulous captain for India as well. Even his records, he’s probably the most under-rated cricketer and probably the most under-rated leader as well. We won in England, West Indies, we won some 14 or 15 games on the trot."
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