Dhoni is also hailed by cricket experts and pundits as one of the finest ODI skippers in modern day cricket along with the likes of Ricky Ponting, Graeme Smith, Steve Waugh and Vivian Richards; who all enjoyed highly consistent spells as captains and led their sides to titles at major ICC events.
Former Pakistani skipper Shahid Afridi picked the Indian world cup winning skipper as a better captain than Australian great Ricky Ponting. Afridi picked Dhoni ahead of Ponting during a Q&A session with fans on his Twitter handle. Afridi's main reason behind picking the Indian legend over the Australian great was that Dhoni built and strengthened a team full of youngsters.
One of the fans asked: "Better captain Dhoni or Ponting? Lala choice?". Afridi replied by saying: "I rate Dhoni a bit higher than Ponting as he developed a new team full of youngsters."
Dhoni is widely regarded as one of the best captains ever in the history of the sport. Likewise, Ponting too oversaw some of the most successful moments in Australia's cricket history.
Dhoni holds the proud distinction of being the only captain in the world to lead his team to all three ICC titles - 2007 World T20 (now T20 World Cup), 2011 World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy.
Under the dynamic captaincy of Ricky Ponting, Australia won back-to-back World Cup titles in 2003 and 2007 and became an all conquering team in the longest format as well.
Ponting is also the most successful skipper in terms of most wins under his belt in ODI cricket. In 230 matches, he captained Australia to 165 victories, with a win percentage of 76.14. Dhoni occupied the second position behind Ponting and with 110 ODI wins in 200 games. 'Mahi' too has an impressive win percentage of 59.52.
In terms of Test cricket, Ricky Ponting holds the definitive edge over Dhoni with much better win ratio. Ponting skippered Australia in 77 matches and led them to victory in 48 with a staggering win percentage of 62.33. India won 27 out of the 60 Tests under the captaincy of MS Dhoni.