I enjoyed playing a lot under MS Dhoni, says Gautam Gambhir

The ousted Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir has come out in defence of MS Dhoni and slammed the people for criticising him time and again. The former Indian captain attracted a lot of ire after struggling to rotate the strike during the second T20 International against New Zealand last week. Many cricket experts felt the wicket-keeper should retire from the shortest format of the game. However, Gambhir believes that credit should be given where it’s due and Dhoni deserves it according to him.

Dhoni came under the scanner after playing the knock of 49 runs off 37 balls while chasing a stiff total of 197 set by the Kiwis. He played a lot of dot balls and was struggling to get off the strike when Virat Kohli was hitting the ball sweetly. Eventually, the pressure piled up and the target went out of sight. While some of them came out in support of Mahi, many criticised him for stretching his career in T20 format. But recently the skipper Kohli shut all the speculations by terming he is still the best batsman of the team and backed the veteran in the format.

He handled the lows of Indian cricket well

Gautam Gambhir batted for his teammate and cleared that he has to be credited for the way he handled the lows in Indian cricket. “You need to give credit where (it’s due). (At times) People have criticized his (MSD’s) captaincy. What he has done for Indian cricket, not a lot of people have done that, especially the way he handled the lows. It is very easy to handle the highs. But the way he has handled the lows has been remarkable. Especially in Australia and England (2011-12) where we were hammered (4-0) and still being as calm as he was, not showing too many emotions, (for that) I think a lot of credit needs to go to MS,” he said.

Gambhir was speaking during Kolkata Knight Rider’s weekly TV show Knight Club. He also added that he enjoyed a lot with Mahi while he was captain and gelled nicely with him. “I have played under Sourav (Ganguly), Rahul (Dravid), Viru (Virender Sehwag) and MS (Dhoni). I felt, I enjoyed a lot under MS. (We) had great fun; we are around the same age as well. He was pretty chilled out. He kept things very simple which was very good,” the 36-year-old added.