Giving Sachin Tendulkar’s example, former India captain and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said it was necessary to send MS Dhoni up the order and allow him full freedom to play his shots when he first started to play for India.

Ganguly was the captain of the Indian side when MS Dhoni made his debut. After seeing his modest returns in the first few ODIs, Ganguly decided to promote Dhoni to No.3 in an ODI against Pakistan in Visakhapatnam in 2005. Dhoni repaid the faith shown on him with interest by slamming a blistering 148 to lead India to victory. Since then Dhoni never looked back.

Ganguly gave Sachin’s example and said he wouldn’t become such a great player if he had kept on batting at No.6 in ODIs. Sachin had batted in the middle order for the first five years of his career and was only given the opportunity to open the innings during India’s tour to New Zealand in 1994.

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“He (Dhoni) got the opportunity to bat at No.3 in Vizag, scored a superb hundred and whenever he has got a chance to play more overs, he has scored big. Tendulkar wouldn’t have become Tendulkar if he kept batting at No.6 because you get a handful of balls to play,” Ganguly told Sportstak.

The BCCI president said he knew about Dhoni’s abilities to bat higher up the order as the former India wicket-keeper had scored a century while playing in Ganguly’s team in the Challengers Trophy.

“There was Challenger Trophy, he was scored a hundred for my team while opening the batting, so I knew it,” Ganguly said.

Ganguly said it is necessary to send quality payers higher up the order so that they can realise their full potential and Dhoni was one of them.

“A player is made when you send him up the order, you can’t make a player by playing him lower down the order. I always believe you can’t become a big cricketer by sitting inside the dressing room. The Kind of abilities, especially the six-hitting prowess he had, was rare. He changed his towards the end of his career but when the raw MS Dhoni arrived, it was very important to make him free,” Ganguly added.

Ganguly, however rued the fact that Dhoni did not bat in the top-order as frequently as he should have in limited-overs cricket.

“When I had retired, I aired my views many times, that Dhoni should bat higher up the order,” Ganguly said.

Dhoni, who announced his retirement from international cricket on August 15, will be seen in action as the leader of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL 2020. The 13th edition of IPL will begin from September 29 in the UAE.