Wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni has seen several ups and downs in his career but always tried to contribute in the best interests of Indian cricket.
Closely observing his captaincy style, he is a man who always targeted a World Cup and wanted to build a team accordingly. However, in the process, it got inevitable for him to let go off a few senior players.
Some of the talented wicketkeepers in the country couldn’t get a chance as he was the best behind the stumps. Thus, MS Dhoni is always accused of shortening the careers of a few players.
Here are five players whose careers were possibly shortened due to MS Dhoni
- Virender Sehwag: In the initial days, Sehwag, the opener often got the team off to lightning starts irrespective of the format. It was all going well with Viru until the 2011 World Cup. But later in the tours of England and Australia, Sehwag couldn’t create the same kind of impact. He was struggling with his hand-eye coordination and the numbers weren’t good enough for international cricket. Thus, he was dropped from the side.
- Gautam Gambhir: Virender Sehwag’s opening partner Gautam Gambhir was unstoppable and scored runs across the globe at a highly consistent rate. He was even the No.1 Test batsman during this time and provided the team with great starts.
His contribution in the 2011 World Cup final can never be undermined. However, post this tournament, Gambhir’s career took a dip. Thus, MS Dhoni was left with no option but to drop him from the team. Many accuse Dhoni of sacking Gambhir without a strong reason.
- Yuvraj Singh: Yuvraj Singh’s father, Yograj Singh recently accused the wicket-keeper that his son lost the place in the team due to his politics. Yuvraj Singh was the hero of the dream campaign for Team India in 2011.
He was the ‘Man of the Series’ in the tournament and won games single-handedly both with bat and ball. But little did he know that his life would come to a pause due to cancer. Yuvi was destined to become one of the greatest cricketers in India and possibly amongst the best all-rounders the world has ever seen.
Post his cancer treatment, Yuvraj made several comebacks into the Indian team. However, on none of the occasions, he could seal a spot with impactful performances.
- 4. Harbhajan Singh: For almost a decade, Harbhajan Singh was the ace off-spinner for India. However, post-2011, the competition for the spinners in the side increased manifold. The likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha emerged onto the international scene. Bhajji, quite clearly, couldn’t pick up as many wickets. With the doosra gone out of hand due to the bowling action rules, one of his most lethal weapons was gone and had to be axed from the team.
- Dinesh Karthik: The Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper-batsman was considered to be an absolute star in his circles during his younger days. Karthik made his international debut ahead of MS Dhoni. However, he couldn’t create much of an impact at the highest level initially. Then the management decided to try out Dhoni as the wicket-keeper and he succeeded almost instantly. Dhoni had these lightning hands behind the stumps and was a fierce striker of the ball.
Thus, with his place cemented in the team across formats, Karthik could only get in as a pure batsman or a back-up keeper.
