3 times Gautam Gambhir was critical of MS Dhoni
That former India opener Gautam Gambhir is not a big fan of MS Dhoni is no secret. Be it Dhoni's decision to prolong retirement or his rotation policy as skipper during the CB series in 2012, Gambhir has constantly questioned the moves made by Dhoni.
Now, in his latest attack, he has indirectly blamed Dhoni for missing out on a hundred in the 2011 World Cup final. Gambhir was the top-scorer for India in the World Cup final, played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. He made a hard-fought 97 before trying to slog Thisara Perera and lost his wicket, getting clean bowled. Dhoni (91 not out) then took India to victory along with Yuvraj Singh (21 not out). India lifted the World Cup after 28 years, but Gambhir remained an unsung hero, as Dhoni and Singh grabbed all the limelight.
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As Gambhir makes news again for his MSD-bashing, we take a look at three times the cricketer-turned-Member of Parliament has criticised the former India captain in recent times.
#1 When Dhoni ‘distracted’ Gambhir
In a interview with Lallantop, Gambhir has claimed that Dhoni’s reminder to him that he was only three runs away from a hundred in a World Cup final served as a distraction to him.
"I have been asked this question many times, on what happened when I was on 97. I tell every youngster and every person that before getting to 97, I never thought about my own individual score but looked at the target set by Sri Lanka,"
Gambhir said in the interview.
"I remember that after the completion of one over, Dhoni told me that 'three runs are remaining, get these three runs and your hundred would be completed',"
he further added.
"When your mind suddenly turns to your individual performance, individual score, then somewhere you have a rush of blood. Before that moment, my target was only to chase Sri Lanka's target. If only that target remained in my mind, maybe, I would have easily scored my hundred. Till I was on 97, I was in the present. But as soon as I thought that I am just three runs away from getting a hundred, the rush of blood caused by the desire to get to a hundred took over,”
the former cricketer lamented.
Gambhir also revealed his thoughts immediately after he was dismissed, in the interview.
“When I was walking back to the dressing room after being dismissed, I said to myself that these three runs would trouble me for the rest of my life and that is true. Even to this day, people ask me why I couldn't get those three runs."