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Cricket Players'He doesn't captain. Only looks at the video analyst': Gambhir rates Kohli, Morgan, Dhoni, Pant; names his No. 1 skipper
Ahead of the Playoffs, which starts on Sunday with DC taking on CSK with a eye on a place in the final, Gautam Gambhir rated the captaincy of all four skippers, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, MS Dhoni and Eoin Morgan.
MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Eoin Morgan and Rishabh Pant have been instrumental in leading their respective teams into the IPL 2021 Playoffs. While barring Pant, and Kohli to some extent, none of the other two have really fired with the bat, but as far as captaincy goes, all four have been top notch. The fact that Delhi Capitals, Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders finished inside the top four bears testament to all four captains.
Ahead of the Playoffs, which starts on Sunday with DC taking on CSK with a eye on a place in the final, Gautam Gambhir rated the captaincy of all four skippers. Gambhir started off speaking about Morgan, whom the former India captain wasn't too impressed with, despite the fact that under him, KKR turned over a new leaf and revived their once-floundering campaign in the UAE-leg.
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"Morgan's point of view, I'm not sure because he doesn't captain, so it's the video analyst that captains the side. He only just looks at the video analyst, so I don't know whether he's the captain on the field or (if the) captaincy is happening off the field," Gambhir said on ESPNCricinfo.
On to Kohli, Gambhir was highly pleased with the way the RCB skipper has led his team, believing that the fact that this is Kohli's last IPL as captain of the franchise spurred him to deliver a memorable year.
"Virat has been fabulous. Honestly, I have not enjoyed a lot of his captaincy, but this time around, he's been very, very good. Probably the reason is because he thinks this is his last time as captain in IPL, (so) he wants to enjoy it more; he's just more relaxed. And he's got the bowlers this time," added Gambhir.
Reflecting on Dhoni and Pant, whose teams play the Qualifier on Sunday, between the two Gambhir gave the edge to the CSK skipper, as he reckons Pant has the benefit of relying on the valuable inputs of R Ashwin and Steve Smith, who have captained before.
"Purely from the captaincy point of view who can handle the pressure best, probably has to be Dhoni. Rishabh has the advantage from a point of view that he's got a lot of experience in the playing XI. If Steve Smith plays, he's got him alongside. He has got Ravichandran Ashwin who has captained earlier as well... so for me Dhoni is No. 1 at the moment," Gambhir pointed out.
