Dhoni being pushed up the order will be beneficial to the team: Sourav Ganguly

MS Dhoni was the talking point of the first two weeks of IPL 2017. He could muster 61 runs in 5 games. The fact that his team Rising Pune Supergiant were struggling to win games added to the former India captain’s woes. After losing the captaincy of RPS to Steve Smith, people were hoping that MS Dhoni will play more freely but it wasn’t happening for India’s most successful captain.

In an inspired move, Dhoni was promoted to bat at No. 4 against RCB and looked good in his knock of 28. But it was in the next game when the power hitter was in full flow scoring an unbeaten 61 to win the game for his side off the last ball of the innings against defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad.

He smashed as many as 34 runs off the final 11 balls he faced to mark a come-from-behind win for RPS. Speaking to India Today, former India captain Sourav Ganguly welcomed the move of promoting Dhoni up the order.

“A captain sees you differently from the way you see yourself. You need a captain who can push you. MS Dhoni will become a better player post captaincy,” Ganguly told India Today. “Being pushed up the order will be beneficial to the team (Dhoni batted at No.4 vs Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday).

“He felt that he was more useful at No.6; I felt differently – the pressure is no different but at that time, you have more deliveries,” Ganguly said.

Ganguly has been a firm believer that Dhoni should bat at No. 4 in both T20’s and ODI’s. He was recently critical of Dhoni the T20 player saying that he doesn’t boast of a great record for India.

“I am not too sure if Dhoni is a good T20 player. He is a champion ODI player but when it comes to T20 cricket, in 10 years, he has got one fifty and that’s not the best record,” Ganguly had told India Today.

This did not go down well with Dhoni’s fans, and were quick to give it back to Ganguly after the former’s match-winning knock against Sunrisers.

“MS Dhoni has created that sort of a fan-following.

“People will say – why do you criticise him? It was the same for me when I was dropped in 2006. I don’t have any problem with that” said Ganguly.

Incidentally, Dhoni made his India debut under Ganguly’s captaincy. His break-through innings of 148 against Pakistan came when he promoted in the batting order to bat at No. 3 in only his fifth international game. From there on, Dhoni went from strength to strength to become one of the most influential cricketers from India.