MS Dhoni blends Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid's styles of captaincy: Lalchand Rajput

Former Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni led the national side to victory at the 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa. Team India’s manager at the time, Lalchand Rajput, was recently involved in an interview with Sportskeeda. In the interview, he spoke about MS Dhoni by making some startling comparisons with the leadership traits of former Indian captains Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid.  

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Lalchand Rajput praises MS Dhoni, recalls 2007 T20 World Cup campaign

In the interview, Lalchand Rajput hailed MS Dhoni’s leadership by saying that the veteran Indian wicketkeeper-batsman always used to think “two steps ahead of the opponent”. He described the former skipper as someone who was very calm in his approach. Rajput believes that MS Dhoni was always a “thinking captain” and stated that he was a “mixture of Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid”.

Lalchand Rajput also said that much like Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni also gave opportunities to players if he ever saw potential in them and had his own style of aggression. He further stated that the 2011 World Cup-winning skipper helps his players in giving their best performance on the field. On the other hand, Dhoni's calmness, reasoning and structured style of leadership very much resembled Rahul Dravid's, according to Rajput.

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Speaking about the 2007 T20 World Cup, Rajput said that India decided to go with young players in the tournament because of the advice of the then captain Rahul Dravid. He revealed that it was Rahul Dravid, who stopped senior cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly from flying to South Africa, after the completion of their series in England. The ex-Indian team manager additionally stated that Sachin Tendulkar kept calling him for many years after India’s win to tell “I am playing for so many years and I have still not won the World Cup”.

After India won the T20 World Cup in South Africa, Rahul Dravid quit as captain and was succeeded full-time by MS Dhoni in ODIs as well. On the other hand, Sachin Tendulkar's wait for a World Cup win ended within 3 and a half years as India won the 50-over ICC marquee event on home soil, becoming the first team to do so.

MS Dhoni’s leadership stats

While MS Dhoni was appointed as limited-overs captain at the 2007 T20 World Cup, he took over as the leader of the Test side after Anil Kumble’s retirement in 2008. The 38-year-old, currently on a sabbatical from international cricket since June 2019, is the only captain in the world to lead his side to wins in all three major International Cricket Council (ICC) events.

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Image credits: Official Twitter accounts of Cricket Australia and BCCI