Dhoni Would Have Been 'Most Exciting Cricketer' If He Continued Batting At No.3, Not Captained India: Gambhir

"Probably world cricket has missed one thing... that is MS (Dhoni) captained India and did not bat at No. 3. Had MS batted at No. 3, probably world cricket would have seen a completely different player," Gautam Gambhir told Star Sports 'Cricket Connected'

MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir (Image/Getty)

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has gone on to etch his name as arguably the best wicket-keeper batsman in the limited overs format. Besides being regarded as India's most successful limited overs skipper with 3 ICC Trophies in his trophy cabinet, Dhoni is also considered by experts as the best-ever finisher for the 'Men In Blue' in the limited overs format. However, before excelling as India's finisher in ODIs, Dhoni shot into instant fame with his whirlwind tons against arch rivals Pakistan and Sri Lanka which were scored with him batting at the No.3 slot. Former India opener Gautam Gambhir who played a bulk of his international cricket under MS Dhoni's captaincy said that world cricket missed witnessing MS Dhoni continuing to bat at No. 3, as the former opening batsman felt that the wicketkeeper-batsman would have been a 'completely different player' as a top-order batsman. Gautam Gambhir said that had Dhoni continued batting at No.3 for India instead of going on to become the captain of the Indian cricket team., he would have the 'most exciting cricketer' While the hard hitting Dhoni made his first major impression with his clinical ball striking as an aggressive No. 3 batsman, Dhoni played just 16 ODIs at the top-order spot, notching up 993 runs at a staggering average of over 82 and a strike rate of close to 100. Majority of his 10,773 ODI runs came at No. 5 and No. 6 as Dhoni went on to become a calm and calculated finisher after taking over the mantle of captaincy. "Probably world cricket has missed one thing... that is MS (Dhoni) captained India and did not bat at No. 3. Had MS batted at No. 3, probably world cricket would have seen a completely different player," Gautam Gambhir told Star Sports 'Cricket Connected' "Probably he would have got many more runs, broken many records. Forget about records, they are meant to be broken. He would have been the most exciting cricketer in the world had he not captained India and had he batted at No. 3. "MS Dhoni batting at No. 3 on flat wickets with the quality of bowling attack now in world cricket... look at Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and West Indies in the current situation, with the quality there is no international cricket, MS Dhoni would have broken most of the records."