The veteran Indian all-rounder Kapil Dev was the first-ever Indian captain to have won the prestigious World Cup for the team. Team India entered the 1983 World Cup as the ultimate underdogs. Even the players themselves never thought of beating the then mighty West Indies team studded with the likes of Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Malcolm Marshall, etc. However, the Kapil Dev-led team beat all the odds and basked in the glory of their first-ever World Cup title.
Besides Kapil Dev, it was MS Dhoni who became the only second captain to bring the World Cup home after a long wait of 28 years. In the year 2011, MS Dhoni rallied the troops and guided the team to a World Cup victory adding one more feather to his captaincy record. In a recent interview, Kapil Dev couldn’t stop singing praises of Dhoni’s legacy as he named ‘Kapil XI’.
The legendary all-rounder made an appearance on a chat show No Filter Neha hosted by the Bollywood actress Neha Dhupia. During the conversation, Kapil Dev was asked which players he would choose if he had to pick a ‘Kapil XI’. The veteran picked Dhoni as his wicket-keeper batsman without a doubt in his mind.
Wicket-Keeper is only Dhoni: Kapil Dev
He said that nobody could take Dhoni’s place in his side. Dhoni’s position in Kapil’s team is intact and incomparable. He went on to add names of the former Indian superstars Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh while also adding the contemporary India batting legend Virat Kohli to his team.
“Wicket Keeper is only Dhoni. Nobody can touch his spot. You have Zaheer Khan, you have Srinath. Recently Bumrah, I can say. He’s done extremely well. Anil Kumble, all-time great spinner, and Harbhajan. These are the cricketers who come to my mind very much there,” said Kapil Dev.
It is worth noting that Dhoni is the only captain across the world who has won all the ICC tournaments in his reign as the captain of team India. Dhoni retired from Test cricket in 2014 but continued with ODIs and T20Is, however, he stepped down as the captain of the team in the year 2017 handing over his reigns to Virat Kohli. Dhoni retired from international cricket in 2020.