Dhoni is the best Indian Captain I have seen: Muthiah Muralitharan

The Sri Lankan off-spinner also has high hopes on Virat’s captaincy

Dhoni
Muttiah Muralitharan with MS Dhoni. File Pic.

Kolkata: Legendary Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has heaped huge praises on MS Dhoni who recently resigned as captain of the Indian ODI & T20 team. According to Murali, Dhoni has been the best Indian captain he has played against. The off-spinner who is also the spin bowling consultant to CAB’s Vision 2020 program today said at the Eden Gardens, “In my long cricket career Dhoni is one of the best Indian Cricket captain. The three years I played under his captaincy in Chennai Super Kings, I never saw any arrogance from Dhoni. He was always down to earth and was open to take advice from senior players like me and Michael Hussey. Being such a big star he always maintained a low profile.”

After Dhoni’s relinquishment of captaincy the baton is now in the hands of young Virat Kohli. On being asked whether Virat will be able to fill-up the vaccum left by Dhoni as a captain, Muralitharan replied, “I have high hopes for Virat as he loves to take challenges and is a terrific batsman.”

At the same time the Sri Lankan great cautioned Virat about the forthcoming series against England. According to Murali, “This England ODI team and Twenty 20 team is very competitive and totally different from the Test side. Kohli should not take the English team lightly and should always go to Dhoni for advice on the field. It is going to be a tough series for Virat.”

Murli has also praised the inclusion of two best Indian spinners in recent times, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the Series against England. According to him, “That is a very good move as India will not play any more ODI till champions trophy in June so their inclusion will give them an opportunity to test themselves.”

Sri Lanka cricket recently is showcasing poor display at the International level. They were comprehensively beaten in the recently concluded Test series to South Africa. Questions being raised after the departure of Muralitharan, Sangakkara, Jayawardane apt successors of these cricketers are not performing up to the mark. Will Murli extend help to the team to improve their performance? Regarding this Murali said,”The vacuum created by us will not be fulfilled so early it will take more time, the boys are in the learning curve I hope they cope well fast. Presently I am doing well with my assignments at hand and have no plans to coach the Sri Lankan team.”

With the dismal performance of Bengal at the Ranji Trophy some CAB officials have raised their voice pointing fingers on Murali’s failure to create quality spinners in the state in spite of the Vision Twenty 20 training program. Even the Bengal spinner Pragyan Ojha failed to make any mark at the Ranji Trophy. According to Murli, “It takes time to build up spinners it isn’t an easy task, still Amir Goni,Pradipto Pramanik, Ankit Tiwari have come up and doing well. With Pragyan Ojha he was unlucky as in most of the neutral venues he bowled in pitches helping the fast bowlers.”

Muralitharan  will stay till Sunday in the city to train the spinners at the Vision Twenty 20 program.