MS Dhoni-Hack or Star?

[Aussie_Dan]

Gilchrist is mid 30's. Dhoni is mid 20's. Give Dhoni some time.

 

[kodos]

Agree with what sureandar said previously, he has made vital innings and partnerships so far in his short career. Yes some say he is just a slogger at inappropriate times but he is on the learning curve and in the last year he has improved in temperament and patience. This was especially evident in the Champion's trophy game against Australia where he was striking less than 50 until the last few overs where he slogged a few and made some good runs. Just give him time, give him a year or too as it is still far too premature to call him a hack or a dud. Also to compare him to Gilchrist is really inappropriate at this stage, it's much more realistic to compare Gilchrist to say a Sangakarra or Andy Flower (and to me Andy Flower is much skillful than Gilchrist). Gilchrist started his test career at 29 years of age. He had plenty of exposure to international bowlers in the ODI format and gained a lot of confidence and experience from playing ODI's. Dhoni on the other hand begun his ODI career at 23 and test at 24. Quite a substantial age difference and had much fewer first class experience than Gilchrist before entering the international arena.

 

[aditya123]

Dhoni is still starting out and on his day he can take an attack apart but to consider him along with gilchrist or to a lesser extent sangakkara is not on i reckon. Also take into consideration those two guys have to keep to the warnie and murali and also make big runs not easy.

Dhoni keeps to 2 quality spinners (Kumble and Bhajji) unlike Sangakarra or Gilly who have to contend with only one spinner.
Keeping to Kumble on an Indian track is as scary as it can get for a keeper.

I do`nt think Afridi can even be compared to Dhoni, simply because Dhoni has already done quite a lot in short career to earn a name.
It would be a better case to compare Dhoni with somone like Kamran Akmal.

Dhoni has shown that he has the ability to adapt to situations.
If you remember the Lahore ODI against Pakistan where India required 80 runs at 7 R.P.O with 5 wickets down, he played himself him before accompanying Yuvraj till the end.
In fact, in the whole of the Indian ODI Season in 2006, he was the one who finished the games off along with Yuvraj Singh and was instrumntal in India`s world record run-chase streak .
He scored 1156 runs at an average of 55 from August 2005 to August 2006.

His average was only next best to Yuvraj and Hussey in the period under consideration for ICC Awards 2006.
Point out one season when Afridi has been as prolific as the one I pointd out with Dhoni.

He has shown that can score big hundreds and stay there till the end , something which cann ot be said about Afridi.
With Afridi, you can expect him to get out, sooner or later.

 

[sohum]

to be honest the key to dhonis wicket is chest high bowling close to off stump

every team has him worked out now and hes flopped for past 7-8 months now

and regarding afridi

he should be given the licence and has been given the license to attack how he wants

he has much betetr batsmen to back him up and he should come in at number 8

thats his best spot

why play a spinner who cant bat(rehman) when you can play a batsman who can bowl spin(afridi)?

Your logic, as always, doesn't make sense. Dhoni has not flopped the last 7-8 months, a statistic you seemingly pulled out of your ass; he has in fact had a reasonably fair tour in South Africa. As for Afridi--why should he be given the license to attack how he wants when by being given that license he has been failing dramatically? I feel that it is Afridi that teams around the world have actually figured out. Even Afridi knows that its time for him to think about building an innings, I believe he said this in a recent interview.

Alright big guy- Do you feel good after calling me that? Has it made any significant difference to your life? Because it hasn't to mine- I don't sit in front of a PC all day and try undermining a guy who lives thousands of miles away from me.

Was there even any need for you to make that comment after andrew said that the discussion was over? Have you managed to justify some hidden agenda of your's? You Indians do amuse me sometimes- If only you had the balls to say something like that to another's face.

Do you still wonder why you are trolling on this thread? All your comments, however critical, have been exaggerated deliberately to produce aggression of Dhoni's supporters. Taking criticism is one thing, but it is completely different to taking mindless and largely unvalidated lies about a player. And by the same token, it seems you cannot take a shred of criticism against Afridi, either.

Dhoni keeps to 2 quality spinners (Kumble and Bhajji) unlike Sangakarra or Gilly who have to contend with only one spinner.
Keeping to Kumble on an Indian track is as scary as it can get for a keeper.

I do`nt think Afridi can even be compared to Dhoni, simply because Dhoni has already done quite a lot in short career to earn a name.
It would be a better case to compare Dhoni with somone like Kamran Akmal.

Dhoni has shown that he has the ability to adapt to situations.
If you remember the Lahore ODI against Pakistan where India required 80 runs at 7 R.P.O with 5 wickets down, he played himself him before accompanying Yuvraj till the end.
In fact, in the whole of the Indian ODI Season in 2006, he was the one who finished the games off along with Yuvraj Singh and was instrumntal in India`s world record run-chase streak .
He scored 1156 runs at an average of 55 from August 2005 to August 2006.

His average was only next best to Yuvraj and Hussey in the period under consideration for ICC Awards 2006.
Point out one season when Afridi has been as prolific as the one I pointd out with Dhoni.

He has shown that can score big hundreds and stay there till the end , something which cann ot be said about Afridi.
With Afridi, you can expect him to get out, sooner or later.

I agree completely with your post (which is the only reason that I quoted the whole thing). Sangakkara and Gilchrist (especially Gilchrist) have been around the international scene for long enough to mature and develop as players. Given a few more years, I think Dhoni could possibly reach those heights. As for Sanga, he has played large portions of his characters as a specialist batsman, in effect not having to keep to Murali.

 

[Gunner786]

Your logic, as always, doesn't make sense. Dhoni has not flopped the last 7-8 months, a statistic you seemingly pulled out of your ass; he has in fact had a reasonably fair tour in South Africa. As for Afridi--why should he be given the license to attack how he wants when by being given that license he has been failing dramatically? I feel that it is Afridi that teams around the world have actually figured out. Even Afridi knows that its time for him to think about building an innings, I believe he said this in a recent interview.


Do you still wonder why you are trolling on this thread? All your comments, however critical, have been exaggerated deliberately to produce aggression of Dhoni's supporters. Taking criticism is one thing, but it is completely different to taking mindless and largely unvalidated lies about a player. And by the same token, it seems you cannot take a shred of criticism against Afridi, either.


I agree completely with your post (which is the only reason that I quoted the whole thing). Sangakkara and Gilchrist (especially Gilchrist) have been around the international scene for long enough to mature and develop as players. Given a few more years, I think Dhoni could possibly reach those heights. As for Sanga, he has played large portions of his characters as a specialist batsman, in effect not having to keep to Murali.

you need to get over dhoni and urself

its not going to happen mate

fact is dhoni has only been ehre for what?
1 year

and where you say he ahsnt flopped in past 7-8 months

name 1 good test score of his?

 

[The Blazer]

Do you still wonder why you are trolling on this thread? All your comments, however critical, have been exaggerated deliberately to produce aggression of Dhoni's supporters. Taking criticism is one thing, but it is completely different to taking mindless and largely unvalidated lies about a player. And by the same token, it seems you cannot take a shred of criticism against Afridi, either.

You really have a passion for arguing don't you? I'm not the troll around here- I'm quite tall and broad shouldered.

 

[Sureshot]

Your logic, as always, doesn't make sense. Dhoni has not flopped the last 7-8 months, a statistic you seemingly pulled out of your ass;

I hope he pulled it from his arse and not his ass, or he could face animal cruelty charges.

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

No one and I mean no one can replace the Gilchrist's and the McCullum's who can take some blinders I reckon Dhoni is a situation player not to be one of the greats though.

 

[sohum]

you need to get over dhoni and urself

its not going to happen mate

fact is dhoni has only been ehre for what?
1 year

and where you say he ahsnt flopped in past 7-8 months

name 1 good test score of his?

You really give people lots of opportunities, huh? Last 8 months, let's see. That's roughly April 2006 onwards. In that span Dhoni has played 6 test matches, all overseas (4 in the West Indies and 2 in South Africa). His performance has been far from glamorous, chipping in at an average of 24.72 and a HS of 69. In the same range, he has played 22 ODI's at an average of 32.00 with four 50's and an HS of 96.

Not a terribly awesome performance, but considering that he is relatively new to the team, it is not a horrible performance either. And as you rightly pointed out, Dhoni has been here for only a year. There's no saying what'll happen to his career from this point on. Many of the greats of the game had uncertain starts to their career, but once they found their footing, they were in.

Dhoni may be just one more in our long list of possible wicket-keeper batsmen (starting with the unfortunately injured Saba Karim spanning through the likes of MSK Prasad, Vijay Dahiya, Ajay Ratra and Parthiv Patel) but he has shown that he has talent to make it big in the big stage. And his improvement over that period is also good news. In essence, no one here can predict what will become of Dhoni, least of all you. If you care to read through this thread, you will notice strong arguments on both sides.

No one and I mean no one can replace the Gilchrist's and the McCullum's who can take some blinders I reckon Dhoni is a situation player not to be one of the greats though.

You reserve the right to your own opinion, but who are you to claim that we will not see some talented wicket-keeper batsmen crop up in the game of cricket in, say, the next 1000 years?

Records are meant to be broken: this may just be a proverb or saying that has developed, but I think there is much truth in it. If you rule out the possibility of a better wicket-keeper batsman developing, the chances of you recognizing them when they are in your face will have been decreased substantially.

You really have a passion for arguing don't you? I'm not the troll around here- I'm quite tall and broad shouldered.

Eh. Oh, and thanks for the negative reps. You flatter yourself much to much if you think I'd go out of my way to honor your comments with negative reps... too many button clicks.

 

[evertonfan]

It would be foolish to rule out another great wicket keeper developing because the County arena in England has always been thriving with good wicket keepers. Players like Foster, Davies, Prior and the Australian Haddin are all very good prospects and at least one of the trio of Englishmen are close to representing their countries whereas Haddin has done a fine job when deputising for Gilchrist. Although Haddin may be 29, let us not forget that Hussey was 30 when he made his debut and Gilchrist himself was about 27/28 when he started. Out of the Englishmen I mentioned, James Foster is the oldest and he is only 26; Not exactly that old.

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

Shou I ment in this generation obviously in a 1000 years the world wont be here or like 100 Warnes would have gone by lol

 

[sohum]

Shou I ment in this generation obviously in a 1000 years the world wont be here or like 100 Warnes would have gone by lol

It doesn't really make a difference. By specifying an interval of a 1000 years, I'm not claiming that the next Warne will appear in the 1000th. I'm not sure how much research has been done into the statistics of the appearance of greats in cricket, but as far as I'm concerned, the next great may well be playing international cricket already as probably as he may be sitting in the hospital bed wondering how bright the earth is.

 

[aussie1st]

Australia have had two of the best keepers the game has even seen back to back. First Ian Healy and then Adam Gilchrist so it's very possible that we will see another great keeper in the near future.

 

[aussie_ben91]

Gilchrist has definately been Australia's best wicketkeeper batsman but are you so sure that he was a better wicketkeeper then Rod Marsh?

 

[aussie1st]

Obviously not better than Marsh of course adding him and you have 3 great keepers from Australia in the past 20 years.