MS Dhoni would have shattered several records had he not sacrificed his batting order for captaincy: Gautam Gambhir

New Delhi, June 15: Former India opener Gautam Gambhir believes Mahendra Singh Dhoni would have shattered several batting records in his illustrious career had the former India captain not sacrificed his batting slot.

Dhoni announced his arrival at the big stage when he slammed a massive 147 against Pakistan at Visakhapatnam in 2006. The wicketkeeper-batsman from Ranchi was at No. 3 in the batting order by the then captain Sourav Ganguly and rest, as they say, is history.

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The unorthodox right-handed batsman went on establishing himself as a reliable middle-order batsman and a big match-finisher. Dhoni's highest score 183 against Sri Lanka, which came while chasing, also came at one-down. The right-handed batsman has played 16 ODIs at the top-order in his career and aggregated 993 runs at a stunning average of 82.

When he was made the captain of the limited-overs side in 2007, Dhoni changed his slot and started batting between number five and seven. He started finishing games for the team and gave youngsters a chance at the top-order. Still, the talented batsman managed to amass 10773 runs in 350 ODIs and maintained an average of 50-plus.

Gambhir believes that had he batted predominantly at number three in his career and if there was no captaincy burden on his shoulders, Dhoni would have broken several batting records.

"Probably world cricket has missed one thing... that is MS (Dhoni) captained India and did not bat at No. 3. Had MS batted at No. 3, probably world cricket would have seen a completely different player," Gambhir said on Star Sports show 'Cricket Connected'

"Probably he would have got many more runs, broken many records. Forget about records, they are meant to be broken. He would have been the most exciting cricketer in the world had he not captained India and had he batted at No. 3. MS Dhoni batting at No. 3 on flat wickets with the quality of bowling attack now in world cricket... look at Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and West Indies in the current situation, with the quality there is no international cricket, MS Dhoni would have broken most of the records," he added.

Dhoni last made his India appearance during the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup in England. Team India's journey in the WC ended with defeat against New Zealand in the semi-finals and since then Dhoni hasn't made his India comeback.