Former India player Aakash Chopra reckoned there hasn’t been a better finisher than MS Dhoni in the history of cricket. Dhoni scored 10,773 runs which came at an excellent average of 50.57 and an equally impressive strike rate of 87.56 in 297 ODI innings as well. The veteran wicketkeeper-batter scored 1617 runs at an average of 37.60 and a strike rate of 126.13 in 85 T20I knocks.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said: “Whenever a book is written on cricket, the finishing chapter will be written on him, and he might write it himself because there hasn’t been a better finisher than him in the history of cricket. Around 2008, MS Dhoni started developing as a limited-overs cricketer who finished matches. He started getting compared with Michael Bevan. Michael Bevan was one of the best. Very few people have finished better than him.”

However, Aakash Chopra also added that the former India captain had more facets in his game than the Australian middle-order batter as well. MS Dhoni scored 7,333 runs at an average of 48.56 in 212 ODI innings at Nos. 5 and 6 as well. He hit 1107 runs at an average of 36.90 in 58 T20I innings in those positions as well.

“Michael Bevan’s specialty was singles, doubles and running. MS Dhoni ran singles and doubles, hit fours and sixes, stayed unbeaten till the end, and his game awareness was as good as Michael Bevan, if not better. So an aura started getting created, that a game is not over until he is on the ground. He would take the game deep, play differently, and win the match. In his own very inevitable style, he started winning matches, not one but many,” he shared.

“It’s not necessary that a finisher has to come at No. 5. Top-order batters like Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma also finish games but it’s slightly easier for them. It’s difficult for Nos. 4, 5 and 6 to finish games because you don’t get the time to settle,” Aakash Chopra concluded.