Internet Desk: Former India India skipper Sourav Ganguly sacrificed his batting position in the Indian cricket team for Mahendra Singh Dhoni which helped the Indian World Cup winning captain grow as a great match finisher he is today, said the nation’s former destructive opener Virender Sehwag. In an interview with India TV Sehwag told that if Ganguly didn’t give a chance to Dhoni to bat up the order in his position, he wouldn’t have become a great batsman what he is today.
“We were experimenting with the batting order at that time. We decided that if we get a good opening partnership then Sourav Ganguly would come at No.3 but if we had a bad opening stand then we would send pinch hitters like Irfan Pathan or Dhoni to accelerate the scoring rate,” Sehwag told India TV in an interview.
Sehwag further added that it was Ganguly’s decision to give a chance to Dhoni to bat up the order. It was a decision very few captains could have taken on that point of time.
“Ganguly at that time decided to give Dhoni a chance at No.3 for three or four matches. There are very few captains who would first give away his own batting spot for Virender Sehwag and then his set spot of No.3 for Dhoni. Had Dada (Ganguly) not done that, Dhoni would not have become such a great player. Ganguly always believed in giving chances to new players,” Sehwag added.
After Ganguly, Rahu Ldravid became the captain of the Indian Cricket team. Sehwag also mentioned that Sehwag played the same role like Ganguly in making Dhoni a great player.
“During Rahul Dravid’s captaincy, Dhoni got the role of a finisher. He got out a couple of times playing a bad shot and he was also reprimanded by Dravid during one instance. But from that instance, he completely changed his approach and became a very good finisher. The kind of partnerships he had with Yuvraj Singh are memorable,” Sehwag said.