MS Dhoni is Mr Cool but Gautam Gambhir is the guy who will take a bullet for his players: Former KKR Team Director

MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir were undoubtedly two of the most successful skippers in their time. While Dhoni gained accolades in international cricket, Gambhir proved his leadership’s worth in the IPL.

Dhoni steered the Men in Blue to the triumph in 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 ODI World Cup, and 2013 Champions Trophy. Similarly, Gambhir revolutionized Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and led them to two IPL titles in 2012 and 2014.

Dhoni is regarded as one of the most successful skippers in international cricket while Gambhir is known counted among the IPL captains. However, Dhoni and Gambhir possess a personality which is poles apart.

Dhoni is someone who is known to be calm irrespective of the match-situation while Gambhir is someone who never shies away from expressing himself during a game.

Gautam Gambhir has got all passion: Joy Bhattacharya

Explaining the difference of captaincy styles of Dhoni and Gambhir, former Kolkata Knight Riders director Joy Bhattacharya highlighted that the two India stalwarts chose different ways to bask in success.

“Dhoni is Mr Cool but Gambhir can never be cool. So What do you say when you have somebody like a Dhoni? He’s the coolest guy, they play chilled cricket, don’t worry about results, they’ll come just play cricket. He’s so calm that he’ll sort it out,” said Bhattacharya in ‘22 Yarns with Gaurav Kapoor’.

Bhattacharya pointed out Gambhir’s on-field personality, which is quite contrasting than Dhoni’s. He said that the same ‘chilled’ attitude cannot be expected from Gambhir. However, Gambhir is someone who can take a bullet for the team, according to the former KKR director.

“You can’t play that narrative with Gautam. So what do you do when you have a Gautam in the team? You don’t say that he’s captain cool, he’s the guy who will take a bullet for his players, he’s got all passion,” said Bhattacharya.

“So when you’re standing with Gautam, you’ll never stand alone. So that’s what we did with KKR. It has worked for CSK, it has worked for MI and it worked for us as well, that’s the secret of a successful team. Successful teams are those which match their approach with the captain’s personality,” he added.

Here’s the video: