"I’d love to see that shot and say goodbye to this world" - Sunil Gavaskar on MS Dhoni's six in the 2011 World Cup final
Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar paid tribute to MS Dhoni by recalling a conversation that he had with the former Indian skipper during IPL 2011. MS Dhoni had announced his retirement on Saturday through a video posted on Instagram.
MS Dhoni's six in the 2011 World Cup final to confirm India as tournament winners is widely remembered as iconic. Gavaskar has said many times that if he had only two minutes left to live, he would watch Dhoni play that shot and die in peace. The legendary Indian batsman recalls having a conversation with Dhoni about the same during IPL 2011.
“A few days later IPL started, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) were playing their first match and I was at the ground. I met MSD and said, ‘look in this world if I’ve got a couple of minutes left, I’m gonna ask someone to put that shot on because I’d love to see that shot and say goodbye to this world," Sunil Gavaskar told India Today.
"Because that would be a fantastic way, I’d go with a smile on my face. That’s exactly what I had said to MSD and he was of course pretty modest about it. He smiled and didn’t say anything,” he further added.
MS Dhoni and Kapil Dev were very similar as captains: Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar believes that MS Dhoni and Kapil Dev were both very similar as captains. Both wanted to perform well for the team and wanted to lead by example.
“Both (Dhoni and Kapil) were very, very similar. Both had similar approaches to the game. They loved playing the game. Both of them loved being in the centre of action and they wanted to achieve great things for their teams. In that way, both are very similar,” Sunil Gavaskar said.
"I think he will be very much a contender (for captaining all-time India XI). If you look at captaincy in one-day cricket for India, there would just be two guys who would come in the frame as far being captains, one is MS Dhoni and one is Kapil Dev," Gavaskar further added.
But Gavaskar also feels that if there was an all-time India XI and if a captain needed to be chosen, he would select MS Dhoni over Kapil Dev.
The former Indian opener's choice was based on the fact that MS Dhoni is the only captain to have won all three ICC white-ball tournaments - the 2007 T20 World Cup, the 2011 ODI World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy.