Kiran More feels other countries tried wicket-keepers as captains because of MS Dhoni's success
Former Indian wicket-keeper batsman Kiran More heaped praise on MS Dhoni's captaincy tactics. More stated that other countries elected to make their wicket-keepers team captains after looking at Dhoni's success.
During his appearance on WV Raman's podcast Inside Out, Kiran More talked about MS Dhoni in detail. He discussed how Dhoni's captaincy influenced other cricket teams and also revealed why he selected Dhoni for the Indian cricket team 16 years ago.
Speaking of MS Dhoni's captaincy, More pointed out that the other cricketing nations saw the difference in results after handing over the reins to a keeper. Countries like South Africa and Pakistan preferred having a wicket-keeper as their skipper after seeing how well Dhoni performed as captain.
"It will be very difficult to find another Dhoni. So many countries like Pakistan, England or South Africa began trying a wicketkeeper-batsman as the captain, it's because they have seen the benefit of having someone like Dhoni behind the stumps to read the game," Kiran More said.
It is pertinent to note that the Indian cricket team won the T20 World Cup, the Cricket World Cup, and the ICC Champions Trophy under Dhoni's leadership. The team also attained the number 1 position in the ICC Test rankings.
MS Dhoni was a complete package and took Indian cricket by storm: Kiran More
Kiran More was the head of the selection committee when MS Dhoni made his international debut. The Indian cricket team already had Rahul Dravid as a dependable wicket-keeper batsman, but the selectors wished to rest him at the time.
They looked for alternate options and selected MS Dhoni because of his brilliant performances for India A.
"The scenario was something like this: Rahul Dravid had already kept in 75 ODIs, so we were looking for a wicketkeeper-batsman who could whack the ball and could give Rahul some respite," explained More.
"There was something special about the way he [Dhoni] approached the game. We picked him for India A for the series against Kenya, where he had a good tour and scored over 600 runs," Kiran More recalled.
The 58-year-old from Gujarat added that the squad had aggressive batsmen like Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, but Dhoni was the complete package and took Indian cricket by storm.
"We already had players like Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh. But when Dhoni came, he was a complete package and took Indian cricket by storm," More concluded.