Dhoni greatest wicket keeper batsman and world number one captain: Azhar

Hyderabad: Who, according to Mohammed Azharuddin, one of the best fielders in his playing days, was? The former Indian captain named Australian Mark Waugh to a query on twitter on Tuesday. A series of questions flooded his twitter account when he put up: Ask me anything about my favourite topic – Fielding. Sitting idle for […]

Hyderabad: Who, according to Mohammed Azharuddin, one of the best fielders in his playing days, was? The former Indian captain named Australian Mark Waugh to a query on twitter on Tuesday.

A series of questions flooded his twitter account when he put up: Ask me anything about my favourite topic – Fielding. Sitting idle for the next hour. Mark Waugh, along with Jonty Rhodes, Vivian Richards, Roger Harper and Ricky Ponting were other best five fielders in his playing days.

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According to Azhar, Ravinder Jadeja, Glenn Maxwell, Ben Stokes, Suresh Raina and David Warner are the best fielders in the world now.

Who was the best batsman of his era? Azhar replied: Sunil Gavaskar

Asked about his favourite fielding position, Azhar said he enjoyed fielding in all positions except the short leg.

However, Azhar, who was agile, athletic and fast, said that the hardest place to field, straight away said silly point. Incidentally, when spinners Anil Kumble or Venkatapathy Raju bowled, he always fielded at the position and took some spectacular catches.

His best catch in Test matches? It was against Wasim Akram taken in Pakistan in the 1989 Test. “It was one of the 5 catches I took in the Test match.”

Replying to a query whether he enjoyed fielding inside or outside the circle, Azhar said: “I enjoyed fielding in the outfield in the beginning. But when I became captain it became very challenging fielding in the circle.”

Azhar felt Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the greatest wicket keeper batsman and world number one captain.

On the recent Indian fielding where they dropped a few catches, Azhar replied “They need to practise more catches. At least a hundred catches in a day….”

On a question, who were the greatest Indian batters (batsmen) in history in all three formats? Azhar said: Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli. However, Azhar’s current favourite cricketer is Steve Smith.

There was one question whether he remembered the partnership he had with Sachin (Tendulkar) in Cape Town and any interesting conversation during that partnership of 222 runs for the sixth wicket against South Africa in 1997. Azhar replied: “There was no time for conversations. We were only hitting boundaries.” Incidentally Tendulkar scored 169 while Azhar made 115. However India lost the match by 282 runs.

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