What if Sachin Tendulkar had been a wicketkeeper, How could it have changed MS Dhoni’s career?

Sachin Tendulkar has done almost everything in cricket. Apart from being a legendary batter, Sachin has bowled off-spin, leg-spin, medium pace, and also kept wickets when the regular wicketkeeper had to leave the field.

Sachin played 200 Tests, 463 ODIs, and one T20I in his illustrious international career. He amassed a total of 34,357 runs and picked up 201 wickets. The 52-year-old is described by many as the God of Cricket. He can do almost anything on the field of cricket. However, wicketkeeping wasn't his forte.

CricTracker takes a look at a hypothetical situation where we discuss what could have happened to MS Dhoni's career had the Little Master been a specialist wicketkeeper-batter.

Firstly, India had been on the lookout for a reliable wicketkeeping option for a long time, especially after Nayan Mongia lost his form and eventually his place in the international setup in 2001. The likes of Ajay Ratra, Parthiv Patel, Deep Dasgupta, and Dinesh Karthik were given opportunities, but they couldn't cement their place in the side. Rahul Dravid also kept wickets, but he wasn't a specialist.

MS Dhoni made his debut in 2004, and India didn't have to look for alternatives ever again during his tenure in the Indian team. The wicketkeeper-batter went on to lead India in all three formats and Sachin played under his leadership till retiring in 2013.

However, had Sachin been a specialist wicketkeeper, it would have been very difficult for Dhoni to make it to the playing XI. However, he had the skills to break into the team as a specialist batter. Most likely, he would have had to wait for a couple of years more to get into the setup. However, he would have got into the limited overs formats for sure.

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In Tests, however, Dhoni might have been picked as Sachin's backup. As a specialist batter, the 43-year-old would have found it difficult to break into the side, which comprised legendary batters like Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman. Another possibility could have been Sachin relinquishing the gloves as he grew older and handed the wicketkeeping duties to Dhoni. The former could have taken this decision to keep himself fresh and extend his career.

In the end, we must admit that we are lucky enough to witness two absolute stalwarts of the game playing together for nearly a decade.