"Dhoni was a lucky captain because he got an incredible team in all formats": Gautam Gambhir

Gambhir said that all he and Dhoni used to discuss as roommates were “hair” (File photo)

Former India starter Gautam Gambhir called former captain MS Dhoni “lucky” for having a brilliant team under him who helped him and the men in blue win two ICC World Cup titles, a Champions Trophy ICC and also the number one ranking in test cricket.

Giving credit to Dhoni’s success to Sourav Ganguly, Gambhir said Dhoni reaped benefits from the hard work of the current BCCI president. Speaking on the Star Sports Show Cricket Connected, Gambhir said: “Dhoni has been a very lucky captain because he got an amazing team in all formats.”

“Captaining the 2011 World Cup team was very easy for Dhoni because we had players like Sachin (Tendulkar), (Virender) Sehwag, myself, Yuvraj (Singh), Yusuf (Pathan), Virat (Kohli), so He had got the best teams, Gambhir said. “Ganguly had to work very hard for it, and as a result, Dhoni won so many trophies.”

“The reason Dhoni became such a successful captain in Test Cricket is because of Zaheer Khan. Dhoni received a great blessing, so the credit goes to Ganguly. According to me, Zaheer has been the best world-class bowler in India, “he added.

“We were roommates for over a month and what we used to talk about was ‘hair’ because I had long hair back then. We talked about how you would maintain your hair and all that. I remember that we once slept on the floor because we had a very small room and we discussed how to make it bigger. So we removed the beds from the room and we were both sleeping on the floor, “said Gambhir.

The stylish left-hander had scored 97, while Dhoni, who had risen to No. 4, beat 91 unbeaten when India won by six wickets in the 2011 World Cup final at Wankhede Stadium against Sri Lanka.