It was Sourav Ganguly who gave up his No. 3 spot for MS Dhoni, says Virender Sehwag

On Sourav Ganguly’s 50th birthday a six-year-old video is doing the round, where former India opener Virender Sehwag can be seen saying :if Ganguly had not promoted MS Dhoni to No 3, he wouldn’t have become such a great player.”
“We were experimenting with the batting order at that time. We decided that if we get a good opening partnership then Sourav Ganguly would come at No 3 but if we had a bad opening stand then we would send pinch hitters like Irfan Pathan or Dhoni to accelerate the scoring rate. Ganguly at that time decided to give Dhoni a chance at No 3 for three or four matches,” Sehwag had said India TV, citing the example of Dhoni’s two defining ODI knocks that he played in 2005 – the 148 against Pakan and 183 against Sri Lanka. Both these were played when he was promoted to the No 3 position.

4️⃣2️⃣4️⃣ intl. matches1️⃣8️⃣5️⃣7️⃣5️⃣ intl. runs 👌🏻3️⃣8️⃣ intl. centuries 💯
Here’s wishing former #TeamIndia Captain and former BCCI President @SGanguly99 a very Happy Birthday. 👏 🎂 pic.twitter.com/fd1IdQzy24
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 8, 2023
Sehwag had also mentioned that it the second time Ganguly gave up his spot for a younger player. He had earlier given up his opener’s position to Sehwag himself.
“There are very few captains who would first give away his own batting spot for Virender Sehwag and then his set spot of No.3 for Dhoni. Had Dada not done that, Dhoni would not have become such a great player. Ganguly always believed in giving chances to new players,” he had said.

The support & love keeps us going. Few more hours to go … pic.twitter.com/8erK12kK0a
— Sourav Ganguly (@SGanguly99) July 7, 2023
Interestingly, it was the second time Ganguly gave up his spot for a younger player. He had earlier given up his opener’s position to Sehwag himself.
“There are very few captains who would first give away his own batting spot for Virender Sehwag and then his set spot of No.3 for Dhoni. Had Dada not done that, Dhoni would not have become such a great player. Ganguly always believed in giving chances to new players,” the former explosive opener added.

“During Rahul Dravid’s captaincy, Dhoni got the role of a finisher. He got out a couple of times playing a bad shot and he was also reprimanded Dravid during one instance. But from that instance, he completely changed his approach and became a very good finisher. The kind of partnerships he had with Yuvraj Singh are memorable,” Sehwag said.