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

Former Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni led national side to victory at 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa. Team India’s manr at time, Lalchand Rajput, was recently involved in an interview with Sportskeeda. In interview, he spoke about MS Dhoni by making some startling comparisons with 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 interview, Lalchand Rajput hailed MS Dhoni’s leadership by saying that veteran Indian wicketkeeper-batsman always used to think “two steps ahead of opponent”. He described 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 m and had his own style of aggression. He furr stated that 2011 World Cup-winning skipper helps his players in giving ir best performance on field. On or 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 2007 T20 World Cup, Rajput said that India decided to go with young players in tournament because of advice of n 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 completion of ir series in England. ex-Indian team manr 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 t won World Cup”.

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

MS Dhoni’s leadership stats

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

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Im credits: Official Twitter accounts of Cricket Australia and BCCI