With the gushing praise, the encomiums that Mahendra Singh Dhoni receives in his capacity as captain of the Indian cricket team; the superlative terms that are routinely used to describe him, somewhere along the way, we lose sight of the fact that he is a superior wicketkeeper, an excellent middle order batsman, one that compares with the best, thinks Cricket360.com. This editorial seeks to do a special review of the wicketkeeper that is MS Dhoni and often overlooked and underestimated part of the cricketer that he is.

Dhoni brings to his wicket keeping and his batting a characteristic calm and a composure that is so evident in his captaincy. It is this temperament and a tremendous personal cricketing ability that helps him compare favourably with the best in the game.
Let’s take a moment to compare Dhoni with Adam Gilchrist, arguably one of the greatest wicket keeper / batsmen in the world and with Kumar Sangakkara (who incidentally is likely going to be the other wicketkeeper captain in international cricket with the resignation of Jayawardene from the top spot). Gilchrist took 129 matches to get to the milestone of 4000 runs and 100 dismissals, whereas Sangakkara took 148 matches to attain the same milestone.

Dhoni’s figures are better than both, having taken only 127 matches to get to the landmark. Dhoni has been consistently better than Gilchrist when it comes to achieving run milestones: Dhoni completed 1000 runs in 29 innings, Gilchrist took 36. Dhoni reached the 2000 run milestone in 62 innings; Gilchrist did it in 63. Dhoni reached the 4000 run benchmark in 114 innings while Gilchrist did the same in 124 innings.

And how does Dhoni compare with Michael Bevan, the ‘Finisher’, that player of the many ‘anchor’ innings compare with Dhoni? Well Bevan, who has one of the best averages in one day cricket and has led Australia to many famous victories, averages 65.2 in matches that Australia won. By contrast, Dhoni has averaged 74.3 in matches that India has won.

As wicketkeeper, he is calm and collected and accurate. As a batsman he is whatever the situation demands of him: a big hitter when required, playing the role of sheet anchor when required, watchful and subdued when required; even willing to play second fiddle to a team mate who is on song.

Cricket360 salutes the cricketer that MS Dhoni is; the batsman, the wicketkeeper, teammate and lest we forget, the Captain! And echoes the sentiments of crores: Yeh dil mange more!

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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