The future of veteran wicketkeeper-batsman has been a topic of debate with the national selectors showing an inclination to look forward.
Meanwhile, Ganguly doesn't want people to ‘jump the gun’ as far as Dhoni's future is concerned. He made it clear that skipper Virat Kohli's ‘expectations’ and ‘what he is communicating’ to the senior-most player in the team is paramount.
“No, I didn't expect him to be picked for this series (against South Africa),” Ganguly replied when asked if he was surprised with Dhoni's omission even though the official reason is his "unavailability".
“You could make out from West Indies (T20) series, that they (team management) wanted to give Rishabh a chance. They want to pursue with him, which is rightly so. Because when MS came in young, he was also persisted with,” Ganguly added.
However, one of India's best captains agreed that it's a tricky situation which skipper Kohli needs to deal with.
“I think Virat is very important as to what he is communicating to Dhoni. What he (Kohli) expects of him (Dhoni) is very hard to say. But I don't think anybody should jump the gun and pass a statement,” said the 47-year-old former skipper.
“I don't know what's the communication between, Dhoni, the selectors and the team management. I am a bit far off from those discussions,” he added.
Ganguly also doesn't want Pant to be compared to a legend like Dhoni. Asked if there is this ‘elephant in the room’ (Dhoni) for Pant, Ganguly sounded dismissive.
“There is no elephant in the room. Rishabh is no MS Dhoni and will not become MS Dhoni in the next 3-4 years. It took 15 years for MS Dhoni to become "the MS Dhoni". Dhoni is a special breed in Indian cricket,” said Ganguly.
But at the same time, he finds it baffling that there were calls from some quarters to drop the young keeper-batsman just because he has failed in one match despite his phenomenal Test record.
“I was reading somewhere after he failed in just two innings in the first Test match, that whether he will play the next Test match. I said "what?", this fellow got a hundred, only one Test ago (in Australia) and a couple of 92s few matches before that (against West Indies). He is special although I won't compare him with Dhoni,” the former Indian skipper said.