Shahid Afridi picks better captain between MS Dhoni and Ricky Ponting
Shahid Afridi picked his choice between MS Dhoni and Ricky Ponting as a better captain. Afridi, who himself led the Pakistan team for a long period, chose Dhoni over the former Australian captain.
The veteran Pakistan all-rounder is known for his strong and straightforward opinion. On Wednesday, Afridi took part in a Q&A session on Twitter, where he didn't shy away to give some bold answers.
A fan asked Afridi: "Better captain Dhoni or Ponting? Lala choice."
To which Afridi replied: "I rate Dhoni a bit higher than Ponting as he developed a new team full of youngsters."
The former India captain groomed many budding cricketers who are now the world-beaters, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are two of them.
Dhoni is the only captain in the world to win all three ICC trophies as captain. He led Team India to 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy titles to complete his trinity.
While Ricky Ponting is considered as one of the greatest captains to ever play the game. Under Ponting's leadership, Australia won back to back World Cups in 2003 and 2007.
Recently, veteran Australia batsman Michael Hussey pointed out the similarities between the two great captains and said they don't change themselves in any situation and remain consistent and calm.
“Whether the team is going really well or going poorly, they are just consistent and calm with their personalities. Ricky, for example, whether he scored a hundred or scored a duck, he was just the same person. MSD, whether won four games in a row or lost four games in a row, he is exactly the same person. I think that is a very good attribute to have from a leadership point of view and it rubs off on everyone else on the team," Hussey said in a podcast called Hotspot with Chetan Narula.
“If you have an emotional character as captain who is always going up and down, the team rides those waves with the captain, but if a captain is control and calm, and consistent with his personality, then that really helps the team,” Hussey said.
