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Kohli vs MS Dhoni

Who is better?

  • Total voters
    20
C

Chrish

International Debutant
Who is a greater ODI player? Who would you pick in your Xi if you only have one choice?
 
Spark

Spark

Global Moderator
Kohli. Both are likely to pull off their fair share of miracle wins from nowhere, but Kohli is more reliable at setting up a boring routine win which is completely over as a contest more than an hour before the final ball is bowled. You'll win a hell of a lot of games with that.
 
OverratedSanity

OverratedSanity

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Dhoni used to be a great finisher. Kohli sets up games in addition to being the greatest chaser in history.Clearly the better batsman by a distance imo.

However, Dhoni's keeping and captaincy are very under appreciated aspects of his ODI game, and as an all round package he doesnt have many peers.
 
srbhkshk

srbhkshk

International Captain
Yeah, I think Kohli is the better batsman by a decent margin, but there's a total of one guy who can reasonably replace Dhoni in an ATG side. Maybe Buttler when he has had a longer career.
 
Teja.

Teja.

Global Moderator
The way Kohli is going and with time he has, him being ODI GOAT by EOC is almost a FC.
 
C

Chrish

International Debutant
How important is WC KO performance when rating a player?

How much Kohli’s failure in that department counts against him?
 
stephen

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Logan said:
Why is this even a question? Kohli is arguably the greatest ODI batsman of all time.
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Because Dhoni is almost as good with the bat (last couple of years notwithstanding) and was also a great keeper and captain. He also played a great knock in a world cup final.

It's a valid question IMO and right now I think peak Dhoni is more valuable than peak Kohli, given Dhoni's importance to India's world cup victory and his all round game.

I don't particularly care for Kohli's captaincy, Dhoni was better.
 
J

Jack1

International Debutant
Logan said:
Why is this even a question? Kohli is arguably the greatest ODI batsman of all time.
Click to expand...
There isn't an arguably. Kohli is ahead by daylight of anyone else with bat and I'm also struggling to find a better captain and leader. I think he's the best batsman, captain and leader in ODI history.
 
stephen

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
This thread is not really fair on Dhoni. Kohli is at his peak, while Dhoni's best days are behind him (think Ponting circa 2012).

Batting in ODIs is far easier today than it was even five years ago. Players all around the world are putting up monster numbers. Dhoni was ahead of his contemporaries by about the same amount as Kohli is today, but he had the keeping and captaincy strings to his bow that both made him more valuable (as I said, I don't rate Kohli's captaincy much). Dhoni also performed in the only World Cup win India have had in the last 30 years. Kohli's world cup numbers are ordinary compared to his contemporaries.

If you asked me to pick a player right now it's easily Kohli. If you asked me to pick a player based on the weight of their career, it's Dhoni.
 
C

Chrish

International Debutant
stephen said:
This thread is not really fair on Dhoni. Kohli is at his peak, while Dhoni's best days are behind him (think Ponting circa 2012).

Batting in ODIs is far easier today than it was even five years ago. Players all around the world are putting up monster numbers. Dhoni was ahead of his contemporaries by about the same amount as Kohli is today, but he had the keeping and captaincy strings to his bow that both made him more valuable (as I said, I don't rate Kohli's captaincy much). Dhoni also performed in the only World Cup win India have had in the last 30 years. Kohli's world cup numbers are ordinary compared to his contemporaries.

If you asked me to pick a player right now it's easily Kohli. If you asked me to pick a player based on the weight of their career, it's Dhoni.
Click to expand...
Of course that's the focus of the thread..
 
vcs

vcs

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stephen said:
This thread is not really fair on Dhoni. Kohli is at his peak, while Dhoni's best days are behind him (think Ponting circa 2012).

Batting in ODIs is far easier today than it was even five years ago. Players all around the world are putting up monster numbers. Dhoni was ahead of his contemporaries by about the same amount as Kohli is today, but he had the keeping and captaincy strings to his bow that both made him more valuable (as I said, I don't rate Kohli's captaincy much). Dhoni also performed in the only World Cup win India have had in the last 30 years. Kohli's world cup numbers are ordinary compared to his contemporaries.

If you asked me to pick a player right now it's easily Kohli. If you asked me to pick a player based on the weight of their career, it's Dhoni.
Click to expand...
That doesn't really matter because Kohli has been Bradmanning it for a few years in ODIs, although Rohit got close to him this year.

Dhoni wasn't really ahead of the rest by a big margin at any stage as far as I can recollect.
 
stephen

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
vcs said:
That doesn't really matter because Kohli has been Bradmanning it for a few years in ODIs, although Rohit got close to him this year.

Dhoni wasn't really ahead of the rest by a big margin at any stage as far as I can recollect.
Click to expand...
Dhoni between 2008 and the end of 2014 (his most favourable run) averaged right on 60. Basically tying with de Villiers during that time period.

Kohli since 2013 (his most favourable run) averages 66, which puts him 6-7 runs clear of de Villiers, Sangakkara, Sharma and Taylor during the time period.

At best, Kohli is therefore around 10% better than his contemporaries, while Dhoni is level with them. As an all round cricketer, Dhoni's better captaincy and world cup performance easily makes up the gap.

Even if we do concede that Kohli is better relatively, at this stage Dhoni doesn't deserve to be considered far behind at all Kohli.
 
stephen

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Batting records | One-Day Internationals | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo.com
Batting records | One-Day Internationals | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo.com

In fact, when accounting for their peak era, I'd suggest that the stats say it looks even closer.

2008-2014 saw 5 players with 50 or more ODIs within 8 runs of Dhoni's average for the era
2013-2019 saw 5 players with 50 or more ODIs within 8 runs of Kohli's average for the era

Of course, Kohli was closer to Dhoni during Dhoni's run than Dhoni has been to Kohli during Kohli's run.
 
CodeOfWisden

CodeOfWisden

U19 Debutant
Ms dhoni is one of the most clutch player i have ever seen, the way he calculates situation and run rate is awesome, he is one of the best cricketing minds(only in lois).

He has destroyed his legacy in last two three years, he should have retired in 2015, i dont think that kohli will ever become a burden on his team, so i"ll pick kohli.
Kohli needs one atg odi knockout innings to become the Goat odi player.
World cup 2023 is in india and i think this will be his best chance.
 
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