Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen says two-time World Cup-winning skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is arguably the greatest captain ever.
When asked, Pietersen said it would be difficult to argue against Dhoni’s greatness.
“It will be very difficult just with the weight of expectation to go against MS Dhoni because of what everybody expects from him, how he has to live his life and what he has been through captaining India and then captaining the CSK,” Pietersen, who played 104 Tests, told Star Sports.
India tasted huge success under Dhoni, winning the 2007 World T20 and the 2011 World Cup at home.
India also won the 2013 Champions Trophy under the Jharkhand dasher, who has not played any international cricket since India’s semi final exit from the ODI World Cup last July.
Dhoni, who has also been leading IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings, has been a successful captain there also, winning the cash-rich T20 league thrice in 2010, 2011 and 2018.
Meanwhile, former India batsman Gautam Gambhir, who led Kolkata Knight Riders to two IPL titles in 2012 and 2014, believes that the franchise could have added another one or two titles if they had got swashbuckling West Indian all-rounder Andre Russell earlier than it did.
Russell, known for hitting towering sixes, was the player of the series in 2019, when Mumbai Indians clinched their fourth title.
“Imagine (Andre) Russell going for Rs 50 Lakhs to KKR and Pawan Negi for Rs 8 crore to (Delhi) Daredevils. I probably wished that he would have been there for 7 years when I was playing we would have certainly won one or two more,” said the former left-handed batsman.
Russell made his IPL debut with Delhi Daredevils in 2012. But sparse chances and injuries restricted his number of games to a handful for the first two editions.
Before 2014 edition, he was roped in by KKR. But he could feature in only a couple of games in that season. However, the tide changed for good in 2015 and it saw Russell score 326 runs at an astounding strike-rate of 192. He also starred with the ball and picked up 14 wickets.
The 2016 edition saw him perform predominantly with the ball as he picked 15 wickets besides scoring 188 runs. KKR made it to the play-offs but failed to make it to the finale.
After serving a one-year ban, the West Indies all-rounder ended up with 13 wickets and more than 300 runs in the 2018 season. In the last season, Russell scored a massive tally of 510 runs besides picking up 11 wickets.
In total, Russell has so far played 64 IPL matches in which he has scored 1,400 runs and picked up 55 wickets.