Irfan Pathan is thrilled with MS Dhoni’s 10,000 runs achievement playing dual role

Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni scaled the 10,000-run mark in ODI cricket during the England vs India 2nd ODI. He needed just 33 runs heading into the game to get there and though he played a slow-paced knock he got there during his knock of 37. Team India lost the match to England by 86 runs and thus Dhoni’s feat didn’t receive the kind of acknowledgement it should’ve. However, his former team-mate Irfan Pathan certainly understands the importance.

Pathan who was the lead pacer for India in the World T20, 2007 where Dhoni made his captaincy debut posted a message and remarked how special the occasion is. He mentioned that being a wicketkeeper and scoring 10k runs is big as keepers usually bat pretty low in the order. They don’t get as many balls to face and fewer opportunities as the top order batters and despite all that Dhoni has managed to scale the milestone. He also gave him the tag of a legend.

Here is Irfan’s post:

“Dhoni’s achievement scoring 10,000 ODI runs makes it so special and rare as it came playing dual role. Being wicket keeper and scoring that many runs I wonder how many will be able to achieve that milestone #matchwinner #legend” he wrote.

Dhoni’s achievement scoring 10,000 ODI runs makes it so special and rare as it came playing dual role. Being wicket keeper and scoring that many runs I wonder how many will be able to achieve that milestone 👏👏 #matchwinner #legend

— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) July 15, 2018

The 37-year-old last night became the second wicketkeeper-batsman after Kumar Sangakkara to score 10k runs in ODIs. He got there in 273 innings which makes it the fifth fastest among the 12 players who have accomplished it thus far. Dhoni is only the fourth Indian after Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid to have got that many runs in the format. He is also the only player who bats as low as No.5 in the order.

Along with that, during the first innings, he also became the first wicketkeeper to grab as many as 300 catches in ODI cricket. Thus Irfan’s rightly stated that being at the top of one’s game with two key roles is not something we’ve seen very often at the highest level.

For all the latest cricket news and other updates follow CricTracker.