“He got a hundred in his career’s fifth One-day International [in Visakhapatnam] while Virender Sehwag looked quite slow. That was a brilliant innings. It was one of those hundreds for which you would stand and say: “This guy is very special’.
MS Dhoni made his ODI debut against Bangladesh in Dec 2004 after the successful tour of Kenya. Parthiv Patel after Australia tour adorn the glove in 3 match test series against Pakistan and also later in 2004 in the home series against Australia. Dinesh Karthik and Rahul Dravid were the keepers in the limited-overs format.
John Wright recalls “Dhoni nearly toured with us to Pakistan (in 2004). Sourav was very keen to have him in the squad. He was on the borderline, and it was one of those decisions that could have gone either way. As it turned out, we selected a successful Test team, and he didn’t make it.”
via IANS
“That was obvious when Dhoni had started to come into discussions at the national level. Sourav had very good things to say about him and always encouraged youngsters who came into the set-up. But you never know how things would have worked out [for Dhoni had he been picked for the Pakistan tour]. That’s when I first started to hear about him.”
“Dhoni seemed to be reading the game an over ahead. That’s always a sign of a good, strategic captaincy, “He’s obviously one of India’s greatest captains along with one or two in the modern era. He has certainly been fantastic for India. His record speaks for itself.”
“It was obvious that Dhoni was not only a very gifted cricketer but also an extremely intelligent one. He was a very good listener who didn’t say much in his first series [under me], but was observing and learning all the time. I thought at the time that he had a big future in front of him,”
When asked about Dhoni leadership as inborn or he had to adjust for the role former Kiwi batsman told “I can’t make that judgment because I wasn’t there [for long to see him, captain]. He just played just one series [under me as coach]. What I heard from afar was that he didn’t have any difficulty in taking the reins over when there were more experienced players in the side and they seemed to respect his leadership which is always a sign of leadership ability,”.
“And in the fourth ODI, came in after openers Sachin Tendulkar and Sehwag had put on a good stand and he came in at No.3. The most interesting thing was that he was quite happy just to rotate the strike and give the batsman who was in, and I thought that it was really intelligent and smart cricket. And that was one of his characteristics — not only as a cricketer but as a leader, particularly in one-day cricket, throughout his career. Technically he was very sound,”.